Wisconsin I Magazine of History

Wisconsin Ethnic Group and the Election of 1890 ROGER E. WYMAN The Ordinance of 1787 JACK E. EBLEN The IWW and the S^estion of Violence JOSEPH R. CONLIN

Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 31, No. 4 / Summer, 1968 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director

Officers THOMAS H. BARLAND, President HERBERT V. KOHLER, Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HoMSTAD, Treasurer CLIFFORD D. SWANSON, Second Vice-President LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Ojficio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor of the State HAROLD W. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, President of the Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires, 1968 MRS. HENRY BALDWIN KENNETH W. HAACENSEN MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE FREDERICK N. TROWBRIDGE Wisconsin Rapids Oconomowoc Milwaukee Green Bay GEORGE BANTA, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY WILLIAM F. STARK CEDRIC A. VIC Menasha Madison Pewaukee Rhinelander H. M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER MiLO K. SWANTON CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madison Madison Baraboo

Term Expires, 1969 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Hartland Genesee Depot Milwaukee SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Madison Ripon Lac Du Flambeau Stevens Point W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS WARREN D. LEARY, JR. Milwaukee Milwaukee Rice Lake

Term Expires, 1970 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK L OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee

Honorary Honorary Life Members JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Berkeley, California DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison

Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH

The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, President MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM STARK, Nashotah, Treasurer MRS. CONRAD ELVEHJEM, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Ex-Officio VOLVME 51, NUMBER 4 / SUMMER, 1968 Wisconsin Magazine of History

WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor

The News and Negro History 268

Wisconsin Ethnic Groups and the Election of 1890 269 ROGER E. WYMAN

Origins of the United States Colonial System: The Ordinance of 1787 294 JACK E. EBLEN

"The First Political Argument": An H. T. Webster Cartoon 315

The IWW and the Question of Violence 316 JOSEPH R. CONLIN

Communications 327

Book Reviews 329

Bibliographical Notes 346

Accessions 348

Contributors 354

Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu­ quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison and Stevens 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Point, Wis. Copyright 1968 by the State Historical Society to members as part of their dues (Annual membership of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon $5.00; Family membership, $7.00; Contributing, $10; Busi Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. ness and Professional, $25 ; Sustaining, $100 or more annual Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ly; Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.25 the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms story carries the following credit line: Reprinted from the 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica^ State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for tions should be addressed to the editor. The Society does [insert the season and year which appear on the Magazine]. The News and Negro History

HE HISTORY of the Negro American society. Across the country, concerned citi­ T has something to say to those of us who zens are trying to persuade school boards, scan the news daily. It can provide a dimen­ administrators, and teachers that the history sion to the news which is now too faint for of black Americans should be integrated into us to discern, because news coverage is as American history and social studies courses. superficial as it is inclusive. The task is a formidable one. We are enveloped and educated by a mass The available textbooks do not do the job. media which skims the top of the news and In fact, some of them bend over backwards feeds it to us like tranquilizers, in capsule to avoid mentioning the Negro participant, form. Let a black militant speak for an hour except as a slave or an Uncle Tom. One and the news reports give us a sentence or 1968 textbook, by a distinguished historian, two. Let a study committee publish a report takes a few steps in the direction of integrated on riots or hunger or poverty, and the news history, but still overlooks such noteworthy reports condense it to a paragraph for us. events as the contributions of Negro soldiers, The columnists and "thought" magazines can Negro literary figures (particularly in the do little better, so intensive is the race for 1920's) and Negro protest groups. We need news space, so short-lived is our concentration integrated history at all levels, and since our span. school systems are heavily dependent upon It would be nice if the mass media pub­ textbooks, new texts are essential. lished fulsome reports and if we, the reading More than texts, though, we need teachers and viewing public, took the time to digest who are trained to use this material in the them. But this is not the way it is, nor will classroom and seek out additional informa­ it be. Most of us grab at a news story, shape tion (of which there is a plethora these days). it into preconceived patterns, reject what does Elementary school children should know about not fit, and go on to the next one. We de­ Negro cowboys and Negro poets. Junior high pend on our previous and continuing edu­ school children should know about the black cational experiences to put these news capsules clockmaker and almanacist, Benjamin Ban- into context, to fill in background gaps, to neker, who served on the committee which raise questions and seek out answers. But the designed our nation's capital and who once fact is that our educational experiences have urged President Thomas Jefferson to establish little relevance to the morning paper and a new cabinet post, a Secretary for Peace. evening newscast. High school students should be exposed to This irrelevance places an urgent and un­ the variety of biographies and historical stud­ recognized burden on our educational system ies now available on the Negro's role in the right now, kindergarten through high school. American experiment. Without teachers Unless the school experience supplies our trained to understand this participation and children with the tools to put news into proper eager to encourage students to learn about perspective, they will be less able than we it, another generation of adults will mature, to understand and respond to the news events unable to place in proper context the desperate of their adult lives. This burden seems al­ striving of a beleaguered minority of Amer­ most greater than our educational system's ican citizens. ability to cope with it. From aspiring Asia to the dollar struggle, from presidential aspir­ It is not easy to predict what news story ants to the struggling poor, the areas of news will grip the nation tomorrow or the day after. significance seem to quantify geometrically. But certain basic issues have emerged over Each one calls for classroom attention and the decades which deserve serious attention each is adaptable to what educators call the in the classrooms, as problems with deep his­ "conceptual approach," teaching by identify­ torical roots. Unless our children and grand­ ing the process behind a series of events or children are able to identify the roots, they a random collection of data. will be carried along on the surface of the daily news, truly unable to carry their most Of all the news areas which engulf us, one important national responsibility—that of be­ stands out because it has been with us for ing informed citizens. over three hundred years. It is about time that we came to grips with the Negro Amer­ ican's contribution to and role in American L.H.F., Jr.

268 WISCONSIN ETHNIC GROUPS AND

THE ELECTION OF 1890

By ROGER E. WYMAN

HE BENNETT LAW CONTROVERSY of system of parochial education. As a result, T 1889-1890 was one of the most exciting in the election of 1890, a unified German and chapters in Wisconsin's colorful political his­ Catholic vote handed the Wisconsin Republi­ tory. The furor over this law, a seemingly in­ can party its worst defeat until 1932; and in nocuous child labor and compulsory education 1892 the lingering emotions among the law's act which also stipulated that certain subjects opponents enabled a Democratic presidential had to be taught in the English language, candidate to carry the state for the first time created a brief but major upheaval in Wiscon­ since 1852. sin politics, and the debris left in its wake Wisconsin has long been known for its large cast a shadow over the political life of the foreign population, particularly its sizable Ger­ state for a decade. man contingent in Milwaukee and surrounding The ethnic and religious antagonisms that areas. Throughout the last half of the nine­ the Bennett Law aroused were the bitterest ever teenth century, the state consistently had the experienced in Wisconsin. Defenders of the largest percentage of foreign-born population law asserted that it was necessary for the pre­ east of the Mississippi River. In 1890 people servation of the public school system, but of foreign parentage—those of foreign birth Germans saw it as an attempt by Americaniz­ plus native-born of foreign parents—composed ing Yankees to extinguish the German lan­ 73.7 per cent of Wisconsin's 1,686,880 in­ guage in the United States; Catholics and habitants.^ The Germans were by far the most Lutherans viewed it as a direct threat to their numerous of the various ethnic groups repre­ sented in the state. In 1890 they made up 37.1 per cent of the total population. Scandina­ vians were the second largest ethnic group: Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes composed

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author is grateful to the Inter- 10.9 per cent of the total population. Immi­ University Consortium for Political Research at the grants from Ireland, Great Britain, Poland, University of Michigan for making it financially Canada, Bohemia, Holland, Belgium, and possible to attend its summer training seminar in 1966 and for providing computer time and much of the county-level data used in this study. The author also thanks Professor Allan G. Bogue, Professor E. David Cronon, and Mr. Stanley Mallach for their critical readings of the manuscript. Responsibility ^ United States Census, 1890, Part I, pp. for any errors remains solely with the author. cxxxix, clxvi-clxvii, 606-609, 667-668.

269 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Switzerland also made up important segments Overt ethnic and religious antagonisms of the population in various areas.^ periodically crept into Wisconsin election cam­ The injection of religious and ethnic con­ paigns. Any type of liquor legislation immed­ flict into Wisconsin politics was not peculiar iately drew protests from the German popu­ to 1890; indeed, ethnic and religious tensions lation and often evoked cries of nativism and between native Americans and foreigners and "Know-Nothingism." Antiforeign sentiment, between the different ethnic groups were re­ nationality antagonisms, and anti-Catholicism flected in state politics as early as the 1840's. were all exploited regularly by politicians of The suffrage provisions of the state constitu­ both parties. The gradual shift of German tion of 1848 made the immigrant a force to Protestants to the Republican party in the be reckoned with in Wisconsin politics, for 1870's and 1880's was largely the result of the right to vote was given to all adult males subtle exploitation of the inherent religious who had lived in the state for one year and antagonisms between Catholic and Protestant who had declared their intention to become an Germans by Republican party leaders. American citizen. In light of the furor it created, it is ironic The pattern of ethnic political allegiances that the Bennett Law passed virtually unno­ that the Bennett Law campaign of 1890 dis­ ticed through the 1889 legislature. Republican rupted was formed prior to the Civil War. Governor William D. Hoard had advocated a By the late 1850's a protracted struggle over compulsory education law in his inaugural ad­ prohibition, and then the slavery question, had dress, and the subsequent bill, introduced by produced relatively permanent attachments be­ young Iowa County assemblyman Michael J. tween the various ethnic groups and the Re­ Bennett, passed through the legislature with­ publican and Democratic parties. There never out debate. The law was enacted on April was a "foreign vote" as such; the immigrant 17, at the end of the session, and signed by groups divided their loyalties between the two Governor Hoard the following day.* It re­ parties. The Irish, Bohemians, Polish, and quired compulsory attendance for each child Dutch and German Catholics provided the bulk of school age in "some public or private day of immigrant support for the Democrats. The school in the city, town or district in which Republicans, in addition to commanding the loyalty of a majority of native-born Ameri­ can Protestants, received the votes of the Eng­ lish, Welsh, and Scotch; the Scandinavians; " For the crucial role of the Germans in Wisconsin politics, see Herman J. Deutsch, "Yankee-Teuton the Dutch Protestants; and an increasingly Rivalry in Wisconsin Politics of the Seventies," in larger share of the German Protestants. Strong the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 14:262-282, 403- 418 (March, June, 1931) ; Wilhelm Hense-Jensen support from the Scandinavians and German and Ernest Bruncken, Wisconsin's Deutsch-Amerika- Protestants was a major factor in Republican ner, bis zum schluss des neuenzehnter fahrhunderts ascendancy in Wisconsin during the last half (2 vols., originally published in Milwaukee, 1900- 1902. Translated into English by Joseph C. Scha- of the nineteenth century. The Republican fer, typewritten manuscript in the Joseph C. Schafer party was deposed only twice between its Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin), chaps. formation and 1900. In both cases, in 1873 10-13. * The Bennett Law was not Wisconsin's first com­ over the Republican-sponsored Graham liquor pulsory education law; a law requiring school at­ law, and in 1890 over the Bennett Law, the tendance had been passed in 1879. Another 1889 German vote defected en masse to the op­ bill which required private schools to make annual reports to the Superintendent of Public Instruction position party .^ had aroused protests from both clergymen and lay­ men and elicited 40,000 signatures on petitions op­ posing it. The bill was allowed to die. The only notice the Bennett bill received was one small petition supporting it. There is no evidence to support the contention current at the time that it came from ° Germans made up more than 50 per cent of the a secret "bill factory" maintained by anti-Catholic state's population who were of foreign parentage. groups in the East. See William F. Whyte, "The Ben­ There were almost 260,000 German-born resi­ nett Law Campaign in Wisconsin," in the Wisconsin dents alone, totaling 15.4 per cent of the state's popu­ Magazine of History, 10:377 (June, 1927) ; Janet C. lation. Norwegians were the most numerous Scan­ Wegner, "The Bennett Law Controversy in Wisconsin, dinavian nationality, composing more than 65 per 1889-1891" (unpublished Master's thesis, Brown Uni­ cent of Scandinavian immigrants. Ibid. versity, 1966), 6-9.

270 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

til early in 1890.^ The Republican Milwaukee Sentinel was largely responsible for foment­ ing much of the bitterness of the ensuing bat­ tle. It undertook an aggressive and belligerent campaign to defend the law as necessary for the preservation of the common school sys­ tem and the speedier assimilation of all immi­ ^•:i' ffV'.i'r,. .• ',»' grants. It wrapped the law in a mantle of Americanism and patriotism, belittling the opponents of the law as enemies of the public schools, narrow-minded clerics, or self-seek­ ing politicians. Day after day the Sentinel filled its editorial pages with defenses of the law, strongly worded attacks on its opponents, and exposes of American-born adults who could not speak, read, or write English.'' The Sentinel's intransigence made it im­ possible to keep the issue out of the spring municipal elections. In Milwaukee, anti-Ben­ nett Law clubs were formed in several wards; individual German Lutheran parishes estab­ uiomaphiL C' lished their own political organizations. Three /oi<;a County Assemblyman Michael J. Bennett, spon­ weeks before the April 1 election the state's sor of the controversial compulsory education bill three German-born Catholic bishops, who had of 1889. been content to let the Lutherans lead the as­ sault, entered the fray. They issued a Bishops' he resides" for at least twelve weeks. The Manifesto which contended that the real ob­ heart of the law, in the eyes of its opponents, ject of the law was to bring parochial schools was section five: under state regulation and ultimately to de­ stroy the parochial school system altogether. No school shall be regarded as a school, They denounced the law as unnecessary, offen­ under this act, unless there shall be taught sive, and unjust, and advocated the support of therein, as part of the elementary educa­ candidates who favored its repeal.* tion of children, reading, writing, arith­ metic and United States history, in the Eng­ lish language.^ " The three groups, whose conferences all met in June, were the Wisconsin Conference of the The last four words—"in the English lan­ Evangelical Association and two predominantly Ger­ guage"—ignited the political explosion which man Lutheran bodies—the Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Synod. Wegner, "Bennett Law Contro­ followed. versy," 42; Otto Hattstaedt, History of the Southern Concerted opposition to the Bennett Law did District of the Evangelical Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States (translated from the German. Works not develop for several months. In June, 1889, Progress Administration. Wisconsin Historical Rec­ three German Protestant bodies denounced ords Survey, 1941), 76. the law as an attack upon German churches, 'Whyte, "Bennett Law," 377-378. Not a day passed in February and March, 1890, without an schools, and language, but the undercurrent editorial or several letters to the editor regarding of opposition remained below the surface un- the Bennett Law appearing on the editorial page of the Sentinel. The Evening Wisconsin, another Milwaukee Republican daily, pursued a similar course, although in a more moderate fashion. See, ^ Laws of Wisconsin, 1889, 729-733. The law's pro­ for example, the issue of March 13, 1890. gressive child labor provisions were ignored in the ''The bishops were Archbishop Michael Heiss, who protest. They prohibited employment of children died a few days before the election; Frederick X. under 13, unless exempted by a judge for specific Katzer of Green Bay, who later succeeded Heiss as purposes, and provided strict penalties for violations. Archbishop; and Kilian C. Flasch of La Crosse. Ibid. Catholic Citizen (Milwaukee), March 15, 1890; Mil-

271 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

In an atmosphere of such agitation, neither The election results shattered the Sentinel's party could avoid the issue. Despite the ef­ illusions of support for the Bennett Law. Peck forts of state Republican chairman Henry C. and the entire Democratic ticket won in a Payne to effect a compromise, the Republican landslide, carrying all but three of the city's platform upheld the law. The influential eighteen wards. An unusually large turnout Protestant German weekly. Die Germania, gave Peck an absolute majority of votes cast usually staunchly Republican, then deserted in a three-way contest. The amazing gains to the Democrats, who had denounced the which Peck made in normally Republican law unequivocally in their platform.** German wards surprised both parties. In three The Bennett Law was the only issue of con­ of the four heaviest German wards—all of sequence in the ensuing campaign. The Demo­ which usually turned in solid Republican ma­ crats assailed the law but denied they op­ jorities—Peck more than doubled the vote of posed public schools. Their main target was his Republican opponent, incumbent mayor the consequences of the law; the Democratic Thomas H. Brown. German Lutheran votes mayoralty candidate, humorist George Peck, also enabled Peck to carry other normally Re­ the author of Peck's Bad Boy, went so far as publican wards. The Bennett Law was an is­ to call it a forerunner of prohibition.'" The sue in other Wisconsin cities as well, and Sentinel, still outwardly confident and aggres­ Democratic mayoralty candidates scored vic­ sive, finally realized the gravity of the situa­ tories in several normally Republican cities, tion when German Lutheran clergy and lay including Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Wau- leaders applied religious fervor to political sau, Cedarburg, Ripon, Waupun, and Fort activity. As the campaign closed, the Sentinel Atkinson.'^ The Sentinel, undaunted by its attempted to hold Lutherans in the Republi­ stunning defeat, regarded the result as only a can fold by arousing anti-Catholic feelings. "Bull Run" in the larger war to follow, con­ It warned Lutherans of the evil consequences fidently stating that voters outside heavily of an alliance with their Catholic enemies and German Milwaukee would uphold the law. denounced the political activity of both Cath­ Other Republican papers denounced clergy­ olic and Lutheran clergymen. It also exagger­ men for preaching politics from the pulpit. ated support for the law among Irish, Polish, It was obvious that the Bennett Law would Bohemian, and American Catholics.'^ become a prime issue in the autumn guberna­ torial campaign.'^

HE APRIL VICTORIES spurred the anti- T Bennett Law forces to greater political agi­ waukee Sentinel, March 1, 2, 6, 30, 1890; Whyte, "Bennett Law," 381-382. tation. Once again the German Protestants led The Catholic Citizen represented the Irish-Ameri­ the opposition and called a huge Anti-Bennett can viewpoint, but to maintain its semiofficial status in the German-dominated diocese, it avoided the na­ Law Convention for June. Largely a German tionality conflict which rent the Wisconsin Catholic Protestant affair, the convention laid the Church at this time. It had ignored the Bennett groundwork for a statewide network of anti- Law controversy until the Bishops' Manifesto ap­ peared. Thereafter, it criticized the law on the basis Bennett Law organizations with the formation of state interference with parochial education and of the Anti-Bennett Law State Central Com­ quietly ignored the language issue which had so mittee. The uncompromising tone of the aroused the German element. See the issues of March 22, 29, 1890. "Catholic Citizen, March 6, 1890; Whyte, "Ben­ nett Law," 381; Milwaukee Sentinel, March 25, 26, 1890. ^^ Peck received 16,216 votes to 9,501 for Brown ^"Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal, March and 5,316 for the Citizen's ticket (labor) candidate. 25, 1890; Milwaukee Sentinel, March 30, 1890. Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal, Evening " The Sentinel's exaggeration of support for the Wisconsin, April 2, 1890. Previous voting returns Bennett Law and the Republican ticket often ap­ were from Milwaukee Sentinel, April 4, 1886, April proached absurdity, such as the contention that 4, 1888. nine out of ten Germans supported the law. See " Milwaukee Sentinel, Evening Wisconsin, April issues of March 15, 16, 17, 30, 1890. See also Eve­ 2-5, 1890; Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) de­ ning Wisconsin, April 1, 1890; for a refutation of nounced the comments of the German sectarian press, the Sentinel's assertions, see Catholic Citizen, March which had rejoiced in the outcome, as "anti-Ameri­ 22, 1890. can and unpatriotic to the last degree." April 5, 1890.

272 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890 speeches and the enthusiastic response served notice that the German community was solid­ ly behind opposition to the law.'* The speeches of the convention confirmed what many of the law's proponents had aver­ red all along: that by and large the Germans were more opposed to the English language provision than they were to the principle of state interference with private education. But they also feared that state interference in paro­ chial education threatened more than just the Lutheran parochial schools. They were afraid that it might lead to the forced disintegration of the German-American way of life. Both Catholic and Protestant Germans saw the Ben­ nett Law as the first assault on "Germanism" (Deutschtum). Throughout much of eastern Wisconsin, the German immigrants jealously guarded what they regarded as their right to preserve many of the customs they brought with them from Europe. The dream some had had of creating a German state in Ameri­ Society's Iconographic Collection ca had long passed, but many still insisted William D. Hoard, incumbent governor in 1890. on preserving Deutschtum within an Ameri­ can context.'^ At the heart of Deutschtum was the German Lutherans even contended that if the German language. Although most German parents language were given up, it would spell the recognized the necessity and desirability of end of Lutheranism.'^ "Strike the two words their children learning English, they realized 'in English' from the law," one newspaper that a thorough knowledge of the mother commented, "and not a churchman in the tongue was essential if German theater, litera­ State could be found to raise his voice against ture, music, and even the Lutheran religion it."" were to survive on American soil. The Ger­ Perhaps no better indication that German­ man parochial schools provided the means by ism and not state paternalism motivated the which the mother tongue was taught to the almost unanimous German protest was the young and were thus essential to the persist­ fact that both Lutheran and Catholic Germans ence of Deutschtum. Again and again, re­ gardless of the official protests against the Bennett Law on the basis of state paternalism, " The thought of worshipping in the English lan­ the central concern of Germans involved the guage was astounding to many Germans. As one pioneer in using English later reminisced: "It had language provision. Some of the more zealous been a well-settled tradition . . . that when mother tongue was given up mother Church must be sacri­ ficed." He recalled that when one young pastor once dared to speak to an audience in English, he was shouted down with the cry "Unser Herr Gott ist " For accounts of the convention, see Hense-Jensen ein deutscher Gott!" ("Our God is a German God!"). and Bruncken, Wisconsin's Deutsch-Amerikaner G. H. Gerberding, "Reminiscent Pioneering and (Schafer translation), chap. 13, pp. 15-19; Wegner, Moralizing," in Historical and Reminiscent Sketches, "Bennett Law Controversy," 74-75. English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the North­ " For other explanations of Deutschtum and the west (n. p., 1916), 5-9. extent of Germanism in some Wisconsin areas, see " Manitowoc County Chronicle, quoted in Wegner, Robert J. Ulrich, "The Bennett Law of 1889: Edu­ "Bennett Law Controversy," 18. Wegner stresses the cation and Politics in Wisconsin" (unpublished Ph.D. point that the language provision was the central thesis. University of Wisconsin, 1965), chap. 1; basis of opposition to the law. Ibid., 30, 33-34, 74^ Louise Kellogg, "The Bennett Law in Wisconsin," 75, 98. Bruncken also recognizes the multi-faceted in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 2:8-12 (Sep­ nature of German opposition. Wisconsin's Deutsch- tember, 1918) ; Whyte, "Bennett Law," 372-373. Amerikaner (Schafer translation), chap. 13, passim.

273 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 stood united and even co-operated in their ef­ publicans might placate the Lutherans at the forts. The Germania came close to admitting last moment, remained somewhat aloof from the true source of opposition to the Bennett the struggle, content to let the Lutherans wage Law when it labeled the April victory in Mil­ the battle. Catholics participated in the work waukee as "a wonderful victory of German- of the Anti-Bennett Law State Central Com­ dom over narrow-hearted nativism." It con­ mittee, but much of the work was done by tinued: priests among their own flocks, most of which were already favorable to the Democrats. The And that Germandom went into this fight Bishops' Manifesto and continued pleas by tolerably well united, may be partly ascribed local priests were helpful in keeping non- to the attacks made for several months German Catholics in the anti-Bennett Law past by the English press of our city against ranks.^" it. These attacks brought into line the large majority of Germans, rank and file. The T^HE REPUBLICANS, stunned by their Germans recognized that with the German -*- Milwaukee defeat, were bitterly divided parochial schools one of the firmest bul­ over the course to pursue regarding the Ben­ warks of Germandom was becoming en­ nett Law. For Governor Hoard and his asso­ dangered and, with the fullest determina­ ciates, vindication by standing firm on the tion, stepped forward to protect this very issue was the answer. Hoard had stated ear­ bulwark.'^ lier that he would stand or fall on the school issue if necessary, and he refused to adopt Since the 1850's Germans had generally a more conciliatory position. The day after divided their political allegiances along reli­ the Milwaukee election Hoard delivered a gious lines, the Catholics supporting the Dem­ speech to a teachers' group in which he ocrats and the Protestants and free-thinkers stoutly defended the law and denounced its the Republicans. But unlike some other ethnic enemies.^' groups, Germans did not form rigid attach­ Hoard and many other supporters of the ments to either party. However, on occasion Bennett Law firmly and sincerely believed that particular issues, such as prohibition and hard it was necessary for the preservation of the money, transcended religious antipathies and common school system. To the governor, still temporarily unified German political senti­ a political neophyte, it was a matter of firm ment. Thus the Bennett Law crisis witnessed conviction and principle—one which could not only unceasing activity among the normal­ not be compromised. Norwegian-American ly politically passive Germans but also extra­ Congressman Nils P. Haugen believed that it ordinary co-operation between German Catho­ was "the old fight of the Church on the Com­ lics and Protestants. The Lutheran-dominated mon School" and that it was "absolutely es­ state central committee published volumes of sential to the future welfare of the state that pamphlets, and many of the state's most prom­ Hoard and the Common School be endorsed inent Lutheran clergymen and laymen took by the people" in November.^^ In addition. the stump or headed various committees.'^ Hoard, Haugen, the Sentinel, and many other The Catholics, although fearful that the Re- Republican leaders believed that sentiment outside of Milwaukee was solidly in favor of the law, and they were confident of carrying

^* Die Germania, quoted in Milwaukee Sentinel, April 3, 1890. " The pamphlets published by the Anti-Bennett ^ Catholic Citizen, June 14, 1890; Wegner, "Ben­ Law State Committee and the synodical school com­ nett Law Controversy," 104. mittees strongly disavowed opposition to the English ^Evening Wisconsin, March 13, April 2, 1890. language (although firmly asserting that German ''^Wegner, "Bennett Law Controversy," 84-85; Nils was not a foreign language) and based opposition P. Haugen to W. D. Parker, April 4, 1890, Haugen to the law on state paternalism. They carefully cited letterbooks, in the Nils P. Haugen Papers, State pages of statistics of German schools using English. Historical Society of Wisconsin. See also Haugen to Christian Koerner, The Bennett Law and the German Parker, April 13, 1890. Haugen's views were colored Protestant Parochial Schools of Wisconsin (Anti- by a strong anti-Catholicism, typical of many Scan­ Bennett Law State Central Committee, 1890). dinavians.

274 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890 the state on the issue. Haugen, Wisconsin's most prominent Scandinavian politician, was blinded by the strong Scandinavian support of compulsory education and by a lack of understanding of the mentality of the Germans in the eastern part of the state. Admitting that things looked bad for the Republicans in 1890, he wrote that "if anything saves the state it will be the Bennett law." Haugen also denounced "the truckling, whimpering atti­ tude" of Payne and other Milwaukee Repub­ lican leaders toward the law.^' Republican leaders with more experience in statewide politics—Payne, Senator John C. Spooner (whose seat was at stake in the election), and Secretary of Agriculture and former governor Jeremiah Rusk—saw things differently. Not only did they understand the German attitude but they also realized the size of the German Lutheran vote, which they estimated at about 40,000. Payne and other leaders had opposed Hoard's nomination in STAND BY IT! 1888 and viewed his Bennett Law crusade as Haugen Papers, SHSW folly, leading only to defeat.^* The tradition The 1890 campaign slogan, used as a letterhead by of renomination of a governor for a second the Jackson County Republican Committee. term was a strong one: a fight to dump Hoard might prove disastrous.^^ Forced to accept Hoard, party leaders hoped to allay German Little School House—Stand By It." A picture fears by adopting a moderate platform state­ of a school, with an American flag flying ment on the law to salvage what they could above it and the slogan written on its roof, of the Lutheran vote. Payne and Spooner un­ decorated the editorial pages of Republican dertook a feverish but futile campaign to re­ newspapers and the stationery of campaign tain the Lutherans and the Germania. committees. In letters and speeches full of The attitudes of Haugen and Hoard dom­ Biblical rhetoric and imagery, Hoard insisted inated the Republican convention, which stood that the public schools were in danger and firmly for the law. The entire Republican defended the necessity that "the poor little campaign effort centered on the Bennett Law German boy" learn English if he were to be­ as necessary for the preservation of the com­ come a useful American citizen.^^ mon school system. The slogan became "The

" Wegner, "Bennett Law Controversy," 84-85; Whyte, "Bennett Law," 385. "The Little School ^ Haugen to Parker, April 13, 1890; to Ernest House" became the focus of the campaign in much Timme, April 12, 1890; to Charles Smith, June 7, of the state. The Milwaukee Young Men's Republi­ 1890, in the Haugen letterbooks. can Club solemnly resolved: "We stand by the little ^' Dorothy Ganfield Fowler, John Coit Spooner, school house. In its defense we invite the co-opera­ Defender of Presidents (New York, 1961), 146-150; tion of all patriotic people." The Evening Wisconsin Wegner, "Bennett Law Controversy," 80-81. The reported that "prominent men in all sections of the estimate of about 40,000 German Lutheran votes cor­ state are coming out bravely in favor of Gov. Hoard responded closely to Democratic estimates. See Ellis and the little red school house. ..." Quoted in The B. Usher to Calvin Brice, August 15, 1890, Usher Little School House, a pamphlet included in Bound letterbooks, in the Ellis B. Usher Papers, State His­ Bennett Law Pamphlets, State Historical Society of torical Society of Wisconsin. Wisconsin. ^ Nevertheless, in an editorial entitled "A Modern Even the Democratic press got into the act. It Jonah," the Evening Wisconsin suggested that Hoard ran the identical cut of the school, including the be dumped overboard to save the endangered Re­ 'Stand By It,' but added under it: "Peck and All publican ship. March 14, 1890. the Schools."

275 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

As early as the autumn of 1889 Democratic party leaders realized that they might profit by the dissatisfaction of German Lutherans with the law but were afraid to inject such an emotion-laden issue into the campaign. Even after the landslide for Peck in April, party leaders were still divided as to whether or not the issue should be exploited.^'^ The younger and bolder party managers, particularly former state chairman Ellis B. Usher and new chairman Edward C. Wall, denounced such indecision. They saw a gold­ en opportunity to capture the predominantly Republican German Protestant vote by a strong stand against the law. Usher wrote that "Hoard and the Sentinel and the Republicans . . . have fully aroused the opposition in the Lutheran and Catholic churches. Neither side can or will quit. The course therefore is clear to me. We must meet it whether we will or Societ> s lt()n<)griiphic Collection not."^^ Wall agreed and attacked the timidity Former state Democratic party chairman Ellis B. of Democrats who favored silence on the is­ Usher of La Crosse. sue. "The idea that a subject that fills the papers daily, that the Governor of the state unequivocally was made. Wall moved to bring speaks on every time he addresses the people, dissident leaders and newspapers into line. that a large portion of the voters of the state By cajolery and persuasiveness he convinced protest against, not being an issue," Wall former Secretary of the Interior William F. thought, was utterly foolish and weak, "/f is Vilas and other lukewarm Democrats of the an issue. A great big one. It must be met."^'' merits of his course of action. With the same Wall and Usher decided to press the issue persuasiveness plus a little arm-twisting. Wall immediately by opposing the law as pater­ got the state's Democratic press to fall into nalistic and undemocratic. This would put the step by June, and then supplied papers Republicans on the defensive, forcing them throughout the state with editorial matter to "defend their child." A firm stand would prepared by the state committee.^' force the Republicans either to desert Hoard The next step for Wall was co-operation or else to defend the law. In either case. Wall with the anti-Bennett Law religious groups. felt, the Republicans would lose the Lutheran He established smooth relations with the Cath­ vote."'" Once the decision to oppose the law olic hierarchy and may have had a hand in for­ mulating their policy of quiet opposition. In the fall the Church became more active and ''^ Usher to Rush Winslow, November 4, 1889, in played an important role in keeping most the Usher letterbooks; Milwaukee Journal, April 4, Catholic voters in the Democratic column. 1890; Horace S. Merrill, William Freeman Vilas, Doctrinaire Democrat (Madison, 1954), 162. Most of Wall's indefatigable energy and or­ ^ Usher to Edward C. Wall, April 6, 1890, in the ganizational talent was devoted to securing Usher letterbooks. the German Lutheran vote. After the June " Wall to Usher, April 27, 1890, in the Usher Pa­ pers. To Wall, timid Democrats were "cowards, so convention Wall continued to work closely many weak men that could run after Greenbackers, labor voters and all kinds of 'unclean girls' " in the past but now held back on the Bennett Law for "conscience sake." Ibid. ''^ Wall sent an aide on a tour of the state to get '"Ibid.; Wall to Usher, May 1, 1890, Usher Pa­ the Democratic press to act in concert. He recognized pers; Usher to Wall, May 26, 1890, Usher letter- that Vilas' support was instrumental and worked hard books; Wall to William F. Vilas, May 16, June 25, to secure it. Wall to Usher, May 5, 1890, in the 1890, in the William F. Vilas Papers, State Historical Usher Papers; Wall to Vilas, May 9, 13, 16, 28, Society of Wisconsin. 1890, in the Vilas Papers.

276 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890 with Lutheran leaders, providing them with py mayor," George W. Peck, for governor campaign material, consulting them on the and demanded the law's repeal. Both parties, formulation of party policy, and winning their plus the Lutheran and Catholic organizations, confidence.^^ The anti-Bennett Law plank of kept up an incessant torrent of charges and the Democratic party was scrutinized carefully countercharges concerning the law. In the by religious leaders. After the Catholics ap­ last weeks of the campaign, Vilas, who had proved it. Wall showed it to the Lutherans stressed national issues in most of his speeches, who made a few changes but called the plat­ delighted Wisconsin German audiences with form a masterpiece. Considerable effort was his comment that it did not matter whether a also made in keeping the influential Germa­ person said "two plus two make four" or nia from backsliding to the Republican par- "zwei und zwei machen vier."^'' ty.^^ As early as June, Wall was so confident The 1890 election campaign witnessed the of success among the Lutherans''* that he sug­ the most blatant ethnic and religious appeals gested the party press devote a month's time in the state's history. The Germans called on to stress other issues. The Bennett Law would their brethren to defend the mother tongue "take care of itself; the Catholics and Luther­ and Germanism; pro-Bennett Law advocates ans will do the fighting," he wrote.^^ charged the Germans with reverse know- National issues also worked to the benefit nothingism. Much of the pro-Bennett Law of the Democrats. The Republicans worried literature and press had a distinct antiforeign about the effect of the tariff issue in the and anti-Catholic tone. The Sentinel and farming areas. An agricultural depression had other Republican papers attacked the Lutheran plagued much of the west since the mid-1880's, clergy almost as vociferously as the Catholic and in 1890 Farmers' Alliances and other ag­ hierarchy. Latent nationality and religious ricultural political organizations grew rapid­ prejudices were aroused on both sides. ly. Wisconsin was not troubled by these divi­ Ethnic campaigning rose to a peak in both sive political organizations, although discon­ parties. By fall the Republicans were resigned tent erupted in isolated areas in the north­ to losing most of the German vote, but they western part of the state. The new McKinley hoped to offset it by gains among native and tariff of 1890 was viewed with more uncer­ Irish-American Democrats who supported the tainty than damnation or praise; still. Demo­ law. The Irish, engaged in an often bitter cratic promises of tariff reform appealed to running battle with German Catholics over the discontented farmers and urban consumers.^^ use of English or German in individual par­ The Bennett Law dominated the campaign. ishes and for control of the state Catholic The Democrats nominated Milwaukee's "hap- hierarchy,^^ were strong supporters of the public schools. Most Irishmen educated their children there, and many served as teachers and administrators. John Nagle, superintend­ ••"-'Wall worked early with prominent Lutherans. ent of Manitowoc County schools and editor He arranged to have the Milwaukee Journal sent to every Lutheran clergyman in the state, and in mid- May he met quietly with the Lutheran anti-Bennett leaders. He assured Vilas that although a few de­ sired reconciliation with the Republicans, the more influential leaders and the mass of the clergy op­ ™ Harold U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform and Ex­ posed it. The firm resolutions of the convention made pansion, 1890-1900 (New York, 1959), chap. 3, pp. it easier for Wall to establish close relationships with 105-117; Merrill, Vilas, 160-168; Griff Jones to the Lutheran leadership. Wall to Vilas, May 16, Haugen, June 4, 1890, in the Haugen Papers. For June 25, 1890, in the Vilas Papers. Democratic hopes of winning votes on the tariff is­ '"Wall to Vilas, June 25, August 22, September sue, see Clarence Clark to Vilas, July 29, 1890; C. 10, 1890, in the Vilas Papers (additions). W. Graves to Vilas, October 16, 1890, in the Vilas ^* A Milwaukee Lutheran clergyman told Wall that Papers. "he had some 400 male communicants, who had prior "' Merrill, Vilas, 167-168; Whyte, "Bennett Law," to this spring always voted the republican ticket, and 386. not one of them a democrat and that now not one ^ For ethnic conflict within the Wisconsin Catholic of them was a republican for, he said, it is a party church, see Colman J. Barry, The Catholic Church of cranks." Wall to Vilas, June 25, 1890, in the and German Americans (Milwaukee, 1953), chaps. Vilas Papers. 2-3; Sister Justille McDonald, History of the Irish "=WaIl to Usher, June 11, 1890, in the Usher in Wisconsin in the Nineteenth Century (Washing­ Papers. ton, 1954), 172-176.

277 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

but rumors of breaks in their support for the Republicans persisted. The Republicans made a concerted effort to keep them in line, and leaders such as Haugen were kept scurrying around the state mending fences among the dissidents.*' The Democrats' main efforts were aimed at securing the German Protestant vote and at keeping their usual support from German, Irish, Polish, and Bohemian Catholics. Wall also set up a special Scandinavian bureau to proselytize among the Norwegians. Expecting considerable defection from Scandinavians over both the Bennett Law and the tariff, the Democrats sent speakers and literature into Norwegian areas at an unprecedented rate. Wall relied heavily on the Catholic hierarchy to keep the Polish and Irish vote solidly Democratic, but extra efforts were made in Irish wards and townships. In addition to the earlier Bishops' Manifesto, the three bish­ Society's Iconographic Collection ops spoke against the law, and circulars op­ John Nagle, editor of the Manitowoc Pilot. posing it were read from Catholic pulpits. In an Oshkosh speech. Bishop Frederick X. of the Manitowoc Pilol, was a leader of the Katzer even intimated that those Catholics largely Irish-American Democratic Bennett who failed to vote against the law were trait­ Law League. The League received a big play ors to the church.*^ in the Republican press but was numerically weak. Despite Republican overtures, most T^HE EARLIEST RETURNS left no doubt Irish-Americans, loyal Catholics, and their •*- about the outcome: it was a Democratic clergy opposed the law because of the possi­ landslide. Although Governor Hoard ran bility of its use against parochial schools.^'' 6,000 votes ahead of the Republican ticket, he More important to Republican success was was inundated. Hoard's 1888 plurality of the usually solid Scandinavian vote. The 20,273 was transformed into a 28,320 vote Scandinavian Lutheran churches which oper­ margin for Peck, and the entire Democratic ated parochial schools usually did so in the state ticket was swept into office. The crudest summer months, when public schools were blow to the Republicans came in the congres­ not in session. Only in rare instances did they sional and legislative races. Nils P. Haugen, compete with public schools.'*" Scandinavian secure in his heavily Scandinavian district, opposition to the law centered on the district was the only one of seven Republican incumb­ clause and the implications of the law for all ents to survive. The Democrats also captured parochial schools. Scandinavians generally a solid majority in both houses of the legisla­ approved of the law's Americanizing features. ture, thus assuring that a Democrat would

"^ McDonald, History of the Irish in Wisconsin, "Wegner, "Bennett Law Controversy," 31, 100; R. 172-176; Wall to Vilas, September 15, 1890, in the H. Gile to Haugen, October 21, 1890; 0. M. Kalheim Vilas Papers (additions). to Haugen, October 8, 1890; Walter L. Houser to " George M. Stephenson, The Religious Aspects of Haugen, October 21, 1890, in the Haugen Papers. Swedish Immigration: A Study of Immigrant '''Wall to Rasmus B. Anderson, May 26, 1890, in Churches (Minneapolis, 1932), 409-410; Ruth G. the Rasmus B. Anderson Papers, State Historical Sanding, "The Norwegian Element in the Early His­ Society of Wisconsin; Wall to Vilas, September 15, tory of Wisconsin" (unpublished Master's thesis. Uni­ 1890, in the Vilas Papers; Milwaukee Sentinel, No­ versity of Wisconsin, 1937), 137, 169-170. vember 1, 1890.

278 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

replace John C. Spooner in the United States Senate.*^ The Democrats registered large gains in all parts of the state. In 1888 they had won only fifteen of sixty-eight counties, most of which were concentrated in the traditionally Demo­ cratic eastern and lakeshore counties. In 1890 Peck captured forty-one counties; in the en­ tire eastern half of Wisconsin, only six coun­ ties remained loyal to the Grand Old Party. The Republican percentage of the total vote declined in every single county in the state.'''' Except for four heavily Anglo-American coun­ ties along the southern border, the great ma­ jority of Republican counties in 1890 were in the western and northwestern part of the state, in areas populated largely by Scandinavians and native Americans. It was obvious that the Bennett Law was at the root of the upheaval in the state's political composition. In the heavily German areas, re­ joicing over the results was unparalleled.''^ Society's Iconographic Collection The Democrats, hoping to make their control Edward C. Wall of Milwaukee, state Democratic of the state permanent, were almost as jubi­ parly chairman in 1890. lant. Chairman Wall agreed that the Bennett Law had given them their victory: "It was our position on the law that made it com­ Spooner wrote. "The school law did it—a plete," he wrote Vilas. "By declaring for silly, sentimental and damned useless abstrac­ democratic principles we drew the Germans to tion, foisted upon us by a self-righteous dema­ us and made a victory we can be proud of." gogue." An ex-Congressman expressed sim­ Vilas, in private, held that the party could ilar sentiments: "Hoard with his school ques­ have won the state on either the tariff or the tion drove all the Lutherans away from our school law.''^ party, the German Lutherans especially, and Republicans were equally convinced as to the Norwegians stayed away from the polls." the cause of their defeat. It was inevitable, Although many Republican politicians looked upon the party's stand with dismay, the Ben­ nett Law's ardent defenders voiced little re­ gret. Horace Rublee, editor of the Sentinel, " Only holdover Republican senators prevented recognized the political error for which he the election from becoming a complete rout. Demo­ crats won 15 of the 17 seats up for re-election, but had to take much of the blame, but offered the Republicans held a 12 to 4 edge on the holdover no apologies. He felt that no American-born seats. Democrats gained a 19 to 14 edge in the citizen could have foreseen "the wild and un­ senate and a 66 to 33 margin in the assembly. All election returns, unless noted otherwise, are from the reasonable opposition" to the law.*'^ The Wisconsin Blue Book of the year following the elec­ tion. ''* Democratic percentages, however, declined in six counties at the same time the Republicans lost "Wall to Vilas, November 10, 1890, in the Vilas ground; this is largely the result of an upswing in Papers; Vilas to Wendall Anderson, December 10, Prohibition party vote. Some dissatisfied Republi­ 1890, in the Wendall Anderson Papers, State His­ cans may have voted Prohibition rather than aid torical Society of Wisconsin. the Democrats. "Spooner to H. M. Ketchin, November 18, 1890, *'' A German-American historian who was active quoted in Merrill, Vilas, 169; George Hazelton to in the campaign wrote many years later that "unless John Hazelton, December 4, 1890, quoted in Fowler, one lived through this period, one cannot appreciate Spooner, 153; Horace Rublee to Jeremiah Rusk, De­ the jubilations in our congregations" over the out­ cember 2, 1890, quoted in Richard N. Current, Pine come. Hattstaedt, History of the Southern Wisconsin Logs and Politics: A Life of Philctus Sawyer, 1816- District, 77. 1900 (Madison, 1950), 254.

279 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

the Democratic candidate in 1888, Hoard's vote fell by more than 40,000. Historians who have studied the Bennett Law also noted this "stay at home" Republican vote.''^ But such a blanket comparison of the total vote figures for 1888 and 1890 on the statewide level leads to considerable distortion. In the first place, it is misleading to compare the total vote of a presidential year (1888) with a nonpresi- dential election; a sharp drop in the total vote cast should be expected in 1890. A more rea­ sonable comparison would be to examine how the drop in total vote between 1888 and 1890 compared with the drop-off between the presi­ dential election of 1884 and 1886. The total vote for the state as a whole fell 10.8 per cent in 1886 and 12.8 per cent in 1890. At first glance, then, the drop-off in 1890 seems just slightly higher than usual. The individual Society's Iconograpiiic Collection county totals, however, give a different pic­ ture. In 1890 many counties suffered a de­ George W. Peck, the Democratic party's victorious gubernatorial candidate in 1880. cline in total vote of at least 20 per cent, some in excess of 30 per cent. The statewide total of 12.8 per cent is strongly influenced rhetoric of defeat was similar to that of April: by the more populous counties, particularly It was only the "Bull Run" of a much larger Milwaukee, which had four times as many struggle for the vindication of the common voters as any other and whose total vote actu­ school. The more rabid Bennett Law pro­ ally increased. If each county is taken as a ponents blamed the results on the evil influ­ unit, the average drop-off would be closer to ences of clergymen in politics. Perhaps the 20 per cent. best assessment by a prominent Republican came two years later, when the Bennett Law Looking at the individual county totals still haunted state politics. An aging "Boss" points out a second distortion which can Elisha W. Keyes stated that either the tariff arise when only the statewide totals are used or the Bennett Law could have cost the Re­ —the geographic distribution of the vote de­ publicans the state in 1890. "If the school cline. There was a distinct geographical pat­ question had been out of the canvass, the tern to the spectacular drops in the vote; heavy weight of the McKinley bill would have every county in which the total vote de­ beaten the state ticket; but we should prob­ creased by more than 25 per cent was in ably have saved the legislature. The school bill the western or northern section of the state. was the cause that lost us the legislature."''^ Conversely, with one exception, counties which Republican party leaders also blamed voter had a low drop-off or whose total vote in­ apathy for their defeat, lamenting that the to­ creased were in the eastern or north central tal vote cast fell far below that of 1888. While part of the state. This geographic pattern fol­ Peck received almost 5,000 votes more than lowed distinct ethnic lines as well. Most of those counties with a small drop-off had large German populations, and none had many Scandinavians. On the other hand, many of '^Milwaukee Sentinel, April 2-5, 1890; Wegner, those countries suffering large drops in total "Bennett Law Controversy," 121; William F. Vilas, "The 'Bennett Law' in Wisconsin," Forum, 12:197 (1891) ; Elisha W. Keyes to Rusk, July 6, 1892, quoted in Current, Pine Logs and Politics, 254. Jo­ seph C. Schafer also agreed with Keyes. See "Edito­ rial Comment," in the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ '"Ulrich, "Bennett Law of 1889," 469; Wegner tory, 10:458-459 (June, 1927). "Bennett Law Controversy," 123-126.

280 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

vote were among the heaviest Scandinavian Democratic vote in 1890. None attempt to counties, and none had a large German con­ separate the effect of the Bennett Law and the tingent.^" Certainly, in the eastern part of tariff on the outcome.''' A careful analysis of Wisconsin—the most heavily German—there Wisconsin election returns between 1884 and was little voter apathy in 1890, as the Ben­ 1890, combined with an equally careful com­ nett Law agitation kept the total vote almost parison of this data with ethnic, religious, at the level for a presidential election. In the and other census material, conducted on both western part of the state, the drop-off was the county and township level, leads to very much larger than usual but, as will be shown definite conclusions about the relative impact later, was due not to apathy but dissatisfaction of the Bennett Law and the tariff upon the with Republican national policies on the part voting behavior of some of Wisconsin's major of particular segments of the population. ethnic and religious groups. These conclu­ sions are supported and enhanced by the ap­ plication of statistical analysis to the election fyHE DEMOCRATIC LANDSLIDE of 1890 and census data.^^ -•- was more than a response of Germans and Catholics to the Bennett Law. Republi­ Careful scrutiny of the election returns on cans suffered heavy losses in all sections of both the county and precinct level reveals the the country, particularly in the Middle West all-encompassing effect of the Bennett Law. and the Plains States. Many normally rock- Both the normal ethnic and religious basis of ribbed Republican states, unplagued by is­ party division in Wisconsin, and the extent sues such as the Bennett Law, elected Demo­ to which it was increased by the emotional cratic governors and sent Democratic delega­ campaign of 1890, can be shown by applying tions to Congress. With Republican defeats the standard statistical technique of correla­ occurring throughout the Middle West, the tion to county-level data.'^'^ Table 1 correlates 1890 election in Wisconsin cannot be con­ the Republican and Democratic percentages sidered an isolated phenomenon resulting sole­ ly from distaste for an obnoxious school law. Boss Keyes' observation that either the Ben­ nett Law or the tariff could have led to a Democratic victory is essentially correct. But ''^Ulrich, "Bennett Law of 1889," 502-503, 521- 528; Wegner, "Bennett Law Controversy," 126-132. it was the simultaneous convergence of both Wegner deals only with raw vote totals and county of these powerful issues that produced the level population statistics. Ulrich looks at some Ger­ ignominious Republican defeat. Not only did man and Scandinavian townships but uses no sys­ tematic criteria for selection. Neither presents much dissatisfaction over the tariff cost the Re­ convincing evidence for their conclusions. Joseph publicans the votes of many who might have C. Schafer had a more sophisticated understand­ supported them on the Bennett Law, but the ing of German voting in 1890 but never wrote on it at length. He discusses the election somewhat in two issues may have interacted to lose them Four Wisconsin Counties, Prairie and Forest (Madi­ more votes. In other words, many voters might son, 1927), passim, as well as in his "Editorial Com­ not have disliked the Bennett Law or the ment" on Whyte's 1927 article. ^^ Preliminary computer analysis of the county-level tariff alone enough to vote Democratic, but data was done at the University of Michigan, utilizing the cumulative negative effect of both of the the facilities of the Inter-University Consortium for unpopular measures might have led to a de­ Political Research. Most of the analysis utilized the STATJOB system of the University of Wisconsin cision to vote a straight Democratic ticket. Computing Center. °'' The statistical technique used is the standard None of the previous studies of the Bennett Pearsonian product-moment correlation coefficient. Law analyze the election of 1890 in any syste­ This coefficient is a measure of association between two variables, measuring the extent to which they matic manner, although a few demonstrate a vary in respect to each other. The coefficient has general relationship between the German pop­ an upper limit of 1.0 and a lower limit of —1.0. ulation in some counties and the rise in the A value of 1.0 indicates a perfect positive association, —1.0 a perfect negative one. A value of zero sug­ gests no linear relationship between the two vari­ ables. For a more comprehensive explanation, see Hubert M. Blalock, Social Statistics (New York, 1960), chap. 17; V. 0. Key, Jr., A Primer of Sta­ °° The ethnic composition of Wisconsin counties tistics for Political Scientists (New York, 1954), was determined from the 1890 federal census. chap. 4.

281 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

TABLE 1 CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS: REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL VOTE, 1888 AND 1890, WITH ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS CENSUS DATA

Republican Republican Democratic Democratic Governor Governor Governor Governor Variable 1888 1890 1888 1890 Native-Native .595 .656 —.544 —.551 Anglo-American .585 .665 -.536 —.550 Scandinavian .510 .501 -.554 -.688 German .593 —.706 .628 .799 Catholic .646 —.583 .681 .609 Yankee Protestant .344 .526 -.425 -.466 Republican Ethnic Groups .789 .847 -.838 -.915 Democratic Ethnic Groups .612 —.682 .672 .811

of total vote for governor in 1888 and 1890 between Republican vote and Catholic per­ with ethnic and religious categories obtained centage. The relationships between the re­ from federal censuses.^* ligious variables and the party vote hold up The polarization between Yankee and Teu­ when we take the analysis one step farther ton and between Protestant and Catholic in and introduce partial correlations to control 1890 is clear from the table. The Republican for the effects of ethnicity.^^ percentage of the vote correlates strongly with The German shift to the Democratic party the percentage of native born of native par­ is obvious from the table. There is a sharp ents in 1888 (.595) and increases in 1890 rise in the correlation between per cent Ger­ (.656). If we add together the percentage of man and Democratic vote in 1890; the value Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregation- of .799 establishes a firm relationship between alists for each county to form a category of the two variables. An equally sharp increase "Yankee Protestant," the result is similar. in the negative correlation between percent The considerable increase in the correlation German and the Republican vote also demon­ coefficient between Yankee Protestant and strates the severity of the German reaction to Republican vote (from .344 in 1888 to .526 the Bennett Law. Wisconsin's Scandinavians in 1890) is evidence of the ardent support continued to support the Republicans strongly Hoard and the Bennett Law received from in both 1888 and 1890. The negative rela- native American Protestants. On the other hand, a solidly negative relationship exists

^'' Partial correlation is a more sophisticated sta­ tistical technique which permits the effect of one or more variables to be held constant. For a detailed " County-level election data was provided on IBM explanation, see Blalock, Social Statistics, chaps. cards by the Inter-University Consortium for Political 18-19. Research; this information was verified and cor­ The relationship between Catholic and party vote rected by the author. The Consortium also provided is even strengthened by holding German constant. most of the census data used in tables 1 and 2, which The partial correlations between Catholic and Demo­ were calculated from the 1890 federal census. The cratic vote, controlling for German are: for 1888, percentages used in the calculations are estimates ,717; for 1890, .727; between Catholic and Repub­ (according to a formula developed by the Consor­ lican vote, —.663 and —.622, respectively. The cor­ tium) of the total number of voters (i.e., adult relation between Yankee Protestant and party vote is males) for each group; the percentages used in the considerably reduced, however, when we control for variables native-native and Anglo-American were com­ native-born of native parents. The partial correla­ puted by the author from the 1900 federal census. tions between Yankee Protestant and Democratic After scattergram analysis, an extreme case was vote are —.202 for 1888 and —.249 for 1890; be­ eliminated in a few of the variables before computer tween Yankee Protestant and Republican vote, .054 analysis. and .287.

282 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

TABLE 2 CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS: REPUBLICAN Loss AND DEMOCRATIC GAIN IN GUBERNA­ TORIAL VOTE BETWEEN 1888 AND 1890 WITH ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS CENSUS DATA

Republican Democratic Loss Gain Variable 1888-1890 1888-1890 Native-Native —.170 -.186 Anglo-American -.223 -.212 Scandinavian .075 -.451 German .252 .627 Catholic -.133 .000 Yankee Protestant —.481 -.289

tionship between Scandinavians and Demo­ Democratic percentages of the total vote be­ cratic vote was even stronger in 1890 (—.688, tween 1888 and 1890 with the same census compared to —.554 in 1888), but the corre­ categories.®'^ If a group supported either party lation between Scandinavian and Republican with about the same strength in both 1888 vote dipped slightly as a result of the stay-at- and 1890, the values of the correlation co­ home tendency of many Wisconsin Scandinavi­ efficients should be near zero. If a group an voters in 1890. shifted toward the Democratic party in 1890, Further evidence of intensified ethnic divi­ a positive value would result; similarly, if it sions in 1890 can be obtained by adding to­ supported the Republican party more strongly gether percentages of voters for several ethnic in 1890 than in 1888, a negative value should groups known to tend to vote either Demo­ be obtained. cratic or Republican and by correlating those Table 2 underscores the significant gains values with the party vote. The Republican that the Democrats made among Germans in ethnic variable was composed of the percen­ 1890; the correlation between per cent Ger­ tages of native born of native parents, Scand­ man and Democratic gain is a strong .627. inavians, and British; the Democratic vari­ The negative correlations of Republican loss able, of Germans, Irish, Polish, and Bohemi­ with native born of native parents and with ans. The result obtained in this manner pro­ Anglo-American stock show that these groups vide solid evidence in support of the conten­ supported the Republican cause with greater tion that ethnicity was a primary determinant fervor in 1890 than in 1888, despite the over­ of voting behavior in the late nineteenth cen­ all Republican losses around the state. The tury as well as pointing out the sharp in­ same is true for the Protestant categories, crease in ethnic-oriented voting in 1890. In composed largely of native Americans. The table 1 the correlation between these Republi­ discrepancy in the correlation coefficients in­ can-tending ethnic groups and the Republican volving Scandinavians again reflects the vote for governor in 1888 is a very strong .789, rising in 1890 to .847. The values of the co­ efficients of this same variable with the Demo­ cratic vote are even more extraordinary, changing from —.838 in 1888 to an amazing "' Such extremely high values, either negative or positive, are rare in much of the literature of the —.915 in 1890. A strong relationship be­ social sciences. Given a large enough number of tween the Democratic ethnic groups and the cases (the number used here, 68, is quite sufficient), Democratic vote also emerges; the correla­ values of plus or minus .5 are usually considered high enough to establish a firm relationship. The tion between these two variables also increases extremely high values revealed by this analysis can sharply, from .672 in 1888 to .811 in 1890.^6 be considered conclusive. °' To obtain the Republican loss, the Republican An even better indication of ethnic and percentage for 1890 was subtracted from the Re­ religious polarization in 1890 can be obtained publican percentage for 1888 for all counties; to get Democratic gain, the Democratic percentage for 1888 by correlating the changes in Republican and was subtracted from that for 1890.

283 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

TABLE 3 VOTE ANALYSIS: TEN TOWNS WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF GERMAN FAMILY HEADS. TOTAL VOTE, 1884^1890, AND REPUBLICAN PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VOTE, 1884-1890

Town and County Total Vote Cast Republican Percentage of Total Vote 1884 1886 1888 1890 1884 1886 1888 1890 Hamburg (Marathon) 101 100 123 100 33 32 32 22 Seneca (Shawano) 44 47 63 61 34 43 49 20 Berlin (Marathon) 196 195 205 190 25 22 24 3 Herman (Sheboygan) 432 370 388 368 40 47 41 20 Schleswig (Manitowoc) 374 291 388 326 25 39 25 21 Wolf River (Winnebago) 145 140 171 175 31 29 29 14 Mosel (Sheboygan) 179 155 171 132 49 53 44 33 Polk (Washington) 301 285 325 250 44 44 45 32 Hartford (Shawano) 241 212 226 207 44 56 47 23 Belgium (Ozaukee) 302 264 282 293 2 2 5 10

Scandinavian stay-at-home vote as well as voted Republican in 1886) ; there was also their continued support for the Republican very little difference in the Republican per­ party. centage of the vote between 1884 and 1888. In 1890, however, the Republican percentage HTHE ROLE OF THE GERMANS in the fell off precipitously in nine of the ten; in -*- landslide of 1890 can easily be shown by four cases the drop exceeded 20 per cent, and analysis of the election returns. The Demo­ although four towns had given Hoard more cratic party made its largest gains in heavily than 40 per cent in 1888, only two gave him German areas. The predominantly German more than 30 per cent in 1890. The average counties were usually among the banner Republican percentage for the ten towns fell Democratic counties; they remained so in from 34.1 in 1888 to 19.4 in 1890. In Berlin 1890, and each boosted its Democratic per­ township in Marathon County, the Republi­ centage. Ozaukee County, which had the high­ can share of the vote fell to a meager three est proportion of Germans in the state, gave per cent! The overriding concern of Germans 83.5 per cent of its vote to Peck. Of the ten over the Bennett Law can be seen in the total counties with the largest Democratic gains, vote figures. The normal drop-off in a non- nine were among the fifteen most German presidential year failed to occur: in two counties. In 1888, three of the ten most Ger­ man counties—Milwaukee, Green Lake, and Taylor—posted Republican pluralities; in 1890 they all had Democratic majorities of •^^ All township ethnic percentages cited herein are at least 55 per cent of the total vote. from the 1905 state census; the ethnic composition of Wisconsin townships, particularly in the eastern The pervasiveness of the German defection part of the state, changed little between 1890 and from the Republican party is more clearly re­ 1905. The percentages are based upon the total num­ ber of family heads (a good estimation of voters) in vealed at the township and ward level. Many the given town, village, or ward in 1905. They are townships around the state had a preponder­ taken from a retabulation of the 1905 census directed ant majority of voters who were either Ger­ by George W. Hill of the University of Wisconsin Rural Sociology Department in 1940. See "Cul­ man-born or born of German parents. Table tural-Ethnic Backgrounds in Wisconsin, 1905" (11 3 shows the total vote and the Republican vols., 1940, typewritten manuscript in the possession percentage of total vote for the ten most Ger­ of the Rural Sociology Department of the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin). man townships in the state for 1884 through ™ In each of these ten towns in 1905 more than 95 1890.®** Each township was more than 90 per per cent of the family heads were of German stock. cent German.®^ By and large, these townships Although the actual percentage may have been dif­ ferent in 1890, each of them was as thoroughly Ger­ were Democratic in all four elections (two man in 1890.

284 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

TABLE 4 GERMAN TOWNSHIPS WITH REPUBLICAN LOSSES GREATER THAN 40 PER CENT, 1890

% Republican % Republican Loss Town and County 1888 1890 1888-1890 Bloomfield (Waushara) 75 24 49 Crystal Lake (Marquette) 62 13 49 Jackson (Washington) 60 18 42 Elba (Dodge) 60 19 41 Fountain Prairie (Columbia) 86 46 40 Newton (Marquette) 48 8 40

towns the total vote actually exceeded that the only two normally Republican townships for 1888, providing a striking contrast with to vote Democratic in 1890 were Hamburg, the state as a whole. which had the highest percentage of German Democratic gains in many other German voters in the county, and Hillsborough, whose areas, particularly in German Lutheran settle­ population was composed mostly of Germans, ments, were even more spectacular. Losses in Bohemians, and Irish. In Adams County, the the Republican share of the vote exceeded 30 most native American of all the sixty-eight per cent in several townships. In six predom­ Wisconsin counties, the only township to inantly German townships, the Republican change its allegiance to the Democracy was percentage of the vote fell by more than 40 Quincy, which had the largest percentage of per cent. (See table 4.) Germans. Throughout the state, virtually every area witnessing heavy Democratic gains Large-scale defections from Republican had a large proportion of German voters. ranks were not limited to closely-knit German "islands" in rural areas, but also occurred It is significant that those German areas among German residents in both large and which recorded the heaviest Republican losses small cities. They were the most important were predominantly Protestant. In most of in Milwaukee, where the Republicans lost them Lutherans dominated, but in some there more than 1,000 votes. In four heavily Ger­ were substantial numbers of Reformed, Evan­ man wards the Republican percentage of the gelical Association, Evangelical United Breth­ vote fell between 11 and 22 per cent from its ren, or other Protestant denominations. All 1888 level; the Democratic percentage in the of the six towns shown in table 4 were heavily same wards increased between 19 and 35 per Protestant, and the pattern was true for Ger­ cent. In one precinct of the eleventh ward, man areas in all parts of the state. In Ozau­ the Democratic percentage increased from 22 kee County, for example, the greatest drop in per cent in 1888 to 75 per cent in 1890. In Republican percentage occurred in the two each of these four wards—the ninth, tenth, largely Protestant towns, Cedarburg and eleventh, and thirteenth—the total vote sur­ Mequon. This certainly does not mean that passed that for 1888 by more than 200 votes. in 1890 Protestant Germans were more Demo­ Milwaukee was no exception: German-dom­ cratic than their Catholic brethren. It serves inated wards in cities in all parts of Wisconsin only to point out that prior to 1890 more were also more Democratic. Republican per­ Catholic than Protestant Germans supported centages fell in Portage's fourth ward by 25 the Democratic party; consequently, in 1890 per cent and in Eau Claire's eighth ward and the Republican losses were higher in German Wausau's seventh ward by 17 per cent. Protestant areas.®" Nor was desertion from the Republican party confined to the areas of concentrated German settlement. It appeared wherever Ger­ man voters were scattered around the state. In °° Religious statistics at the township level are dif­ ficult to find and are often unreliable. The rela­ predominantly Scandinavian Vernon County, tive strength of Catholic and Protestant among the

285 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 fyHE REACTION of Wisconsin's other eth- western Wisconsin felt the prolonged agri­ -*- nic groups to the Bennett Law was not cultural depression acutely and had grave so violent as that of the Germans. Their re­ doubts about the wisdom of the new tariff. sponse varied considerably. Scandinavians A small number of Scandinavians had sup­ were the second largest ethnic group in Wis­ ported the Democrats in 1888 on the tariff consin. Their voting behavior in 1890 dif­ issue, and larger defections were expected in fered from that of previous years, although 1890.62 by no means did it approach the severity of The voting decision of Scandinavians in the German reaction. The drop in sentiment 1890 was torn by cross-pressures. Their tradi­ for the Republican party among Scandinavi­ tional anti-Catholicism and their distaste for ans, as described later, reflected their dis­ German opposition to Americanization rein­ satisfaction with Republican national policy forced their usually staunch Republicanism. rather than with the Republican position on On the other hand, they disliked many fea­ the Bennett Law. During the campaign there tures of the Bennett Law and distrusted the was great uncertainty among both Republi­ McKinley tariff. Recent studies of voting be­ can and Democratic politicians regarding the havior by social scientists indicate that peo­ Scandinavian vote; their performance in the ple faced with such cross-pressures very often election satisfied neither party, although it take the path of least resistance and stay away contributed to the Democratic victory. from the polls.®^ This evidently was the case Scandinavians had ambivalent attitudes to­ among Wisconsin Scandinavians in 1890. ward the Bennett Law. In general they ap­ Obviously dissatisfied with the Republicans, proved of its Americanizing tendency. Most most Norwegians and Swedes who opposed Scandinavians were quick to learn English or the Bennett Law or the tariff did not vote at least make sure that their children did; Democratic; many of them just refused to they resented the Germans' opposition to the vote. English language requirement. The attitudes Consequently, heavily Scandinavian areas of many Scandinavians were also conditioned did not go Democratic in 1890. They re­ by their inherent anti-Catholicism; like Con­ mained Republican, but because of the lower gressman Haugen, some regarded the Bennett total vote, the plurality was sharply reduced. Law fight as one of the Catholic Church In many Scandinavian areas the Democratic against the public schools. On the other hand, vote remained about what it was in 1888, while Scandinavians feared any law interfering with the Republican vote fell off sharply. This parochial education.*" Scandinavian stay-at-home vote was an im­ Dissatisfaction with the Republicans among portant factor in the Democratic victory; it Scandinavians was more serious regarding deprived the Republican party of thousands the McKinley tariff. Scandinavian farmers in of desperately needed votes. It was previously noted that those counties registering the great­ est Democratic gains all had large German populations. The same is not true, however, German towns was ascertained from several sources. of those counties which witnessed the great­ Instrumental were Harry J. Heming, The Catholic Church in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1895-1898) ; the est Republican losses: three of the ten coun­ manuscript census report for the Archdiocese of ties registering the greatest Republican losses Milwaukee, 1902, Milwaukee Archdiocese Archives, had German populations of less than 5 per Chancery office (copy in the possession of the Re­ search Division, State Historical Society of Wiscon­ sin) ; county histories; and examination of several plat maps for the relevant counties, in the collec­ tions of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. For Ozaukee County, see Schafer, "Editorial Com­ "''Usher to Calvin Brice, August 15, 1890, in the ment," 459-460. Usher letterbooks; Clarence Clark to Vilas, July 29, " On Scandinavian anti-Catholicism, see Kendrick 1890, in the Vilas Papers; Merrill, Vilas, 160-162. C. Babcock, The Scandinavian Element in the United *" Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel States (Urbana, 1914), 114; Stephenson, Religious Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York, 1944), 45- Aspects of Swedish Immigration, 1; Sanding, "Nor­ 49, 53-64; Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and William McPhee, wegian Element," 167; 0. F. Ander, "The Swedish- Voting (Chicago, 1954), 27, 130-131; Seymour Mar­ American Press and the American Protective Asso­ tin Lipset, Political Man: The Social Bases of Poli­ ciation," in Church History, 6:168 (June, 1937). tics (Garden City, 1963), 211-213, 223-226.

286 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

TABLE 5 VOTE ANALYSIS: WISCONSIN TOWNS WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF NORWEGIAN AND SWEDISH FAMILY HEADS. TOTAL VOTE, 1884^1890, AND REPUBLICAN PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VOTE, 1884-1890

Town and County Total Vote Cast Republican Percentage of Total Vote 1884 1886 1888 1890 1884 1886 1888 1890 Norwegian: Coon (Vernon) 220 215 251 129 85 80 83 73 Christiana (Vernon) 287 334 335 227 97 90 85 64 Scandinavia (Waupaca) 245 218 284 220 92 89 94 85 Pleasant Springs (Dane) 340 353 369 271 81 77 79 68 Preston (Trempealeau) 348 325 395 249 83 74 72 71 Franklin (Jackson) 105 87 119 98 77 82 79 68 lola (Waupaca) 244 230 271 159 87 92 93 83 Christiana (Dane) 549 539 574 424 67 67 61 60 Northfield (Jackson) 142 133 153 116 79 83 70 51

Swedish: Trade Lake (Burnett) — 130 205 111 — 61 60 55 Stockholm (Pepin) 181 135 158 85 92 73 92 68 Wood River (Burnett) 94 91 105 56 99 86 56 50

cent. These three counties—Bayfield, Douglas, The two most Norwegian towns in the state. and Jackson, all of which remained Republi­ Coon and Christiana in Vernon County, and can—ranked third, fourth, and eighth, re­ the most Swedish town, Trade Lake in Bur­ spectively, in percentage of Scandinavian vot­ nett County, serve as good examples. In Coon, ers. In addition, the drop in total vote in the 1890 vote was about one-half of the 1888 Bayfield (37.2 per cent of the 1888 vote) and total, and was smaller than the vote for 1884 Jackson (23.0 per cent) was well above the or 1886 as well. The Democratic vote declined state average of 12.8 per cent. by four votes, but the Republican decline of An examination of the townships having the 110 votes caused a drop of 10 per cent in the greatest concentration of Scandinavians dem­ Republican percentage. In Christiana, the onstrates the patterns described above. (See Democrats gained only thirteen votes, but in­ table 5.) The 1890 total vote in some of the creased their share of the total vote by 11 per heavily Norwegian and Swedish towns fell cent. In Trade Lake, the total vote was almost almost as much as 50 per cent. Comparing cut in half, but the Prohibition party, which the vote totals for 1884 and 1886 with those for received 41 per cent of the vote, benefited 1888 and 1890, it becomes obvious that this more than the Democrats. In none of these sharp drop-off was not the result of the normal towns did the Democrats win a plurality. lessening of political interest in a nonpresi- Scandinavian voters maintained their strong dential election; the drop-off in 1886 was tie with the Republican party and posted sub­ much smaller. The fact that many of the stantial Republican majorities, but their coun­ heavily Scandinavian towns were in rapidly trymen who stayed away from the polls cost growing areas makes the low turnout in 1890 the Republicans several thousand votes. more spectacular; in only two of the nine The rest of Wisconsin's ethnic groups were most Norwegian towns did the 1890 vote ex­ less influential, numerically at least, in shap­ ceed that of 1886, and in no cases was it ing the outcome in 1890. The Bennett Law greater than in 1888 or 1884. The Republican had a marked effect on the usual voting pat­ percentage of total vote was steady between terns of a few of these groups, however, par­ 1884 and 1888, but fell off noticeably in 1890 ticularly the Bohemians, Belgians, and Swiss. as a result of the lower total vote. By the late 1880's the majority of the state's

287 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Bohemians supported the Democratic party; number of Germans also residing there. Evi­ in 1890 they did so with increased fervor. As dently their traditionally fierce Democratic in the German areas, the total vote was nearly partisanship and the opposition of the Catho­ equal to the 1888 level. In four heavily Bo­ lic clergy to the law kept the Irish vote in hemian towns^"* the Republican vote dropped line. English and Welsh areas remained about sharply in two and slightly in the other two. as Republican as they had in 1888. Two Eng­ In Richland and Vernon counties, townships lish towns gave Hoard a slightly higher per­ with large numbers of Bohemians were among centage in 1890 than in 1888, suggesting that those which suffered the largest Republican the Bennett Law may have gained some votes losses. for the Republicans among British immi­ Wisconsin's Belgians, who were concentrat­ grants.®^ ed in the Green Bay area and who were the The remaining groups voted precisely as only Catholic ethnic group in the state to vote they had in 1888. Wisconsin's rapidly grow­ Republican regularly, also leaned towards the ing Polish population remained as solidly Democrats in 1890. In the almost wholly Democratic as usual (in only one of the six Belgian township of Red River in Kewaunee most Polish areas did Hoard get more than County, the vote was cut in half, and the Re­ 10 per cent of the vote).®'' Dutch Catholics publican percentage fell from 79 to 66 per continued to be strongly Democratic; Dutch cent. In four other Belgian towns, the total Protestants did not deviate in their support vote decreased slightly, but the Republican of the Republicans. Except for a somewhat share of the vote fell between 18 and 34 per higher turnout in Polish areas, thus boosting cent in each.^^ the Democratic vote, none of these groups con­ The fact that Wisconsin's Swiss popula­ tributed to the realignment of voters which tion was largely German may account for produced the Democratic landslide. their defection from the Republicans. New The patterns of ethnic voting behavior in Glarus in Green County, normally about 40 1890 that have been described above may per cent Republican, gave Hoard only 28 better be illustrated by examining a few cities per cent of its vote in 1890. In Buffalo Coun­ or counties as a unit, rather than townships ty, towns with large Swiss populations (which inhabited by any one particular group. One also had large German populations) witnessed of the best examples of ethnocentric voting in large Democratic gains. 1890 is the small city of Hartford, in heavily The normal voting behavior pattern of the German Washington County. The city was state's remaining ethnic groups did not change divided into two wards, one predominantly in 1890. Evidently neither the Bennett Law, German and the other mostly Yankee.®^ In the tariff, nor any other issue affected their 1888, the Yankee ward gave Hoard 61 per usual patterns of support for one party or cent of its vote, the German ward 50 per the other. The most important instance was cent. As in most of Washington County, the the Irish. The expected defection of Irish- total vote increased in 1890; the Yankee ward Americans to the Republican party in support of the Bennett Law never occurred. Irish areas were as strongly Democratic in 1890 as they had been in 1888. The only change in normal voting patterns of the most Irish town­ '"' The two English towns which boosted their Re­ publican percentage were White Oak Springs and ships occurred in Mitchell in Sheboygan Coun­ New Diggings in Lafayette County. A third predom­ ty; its unusually large turnout and large inantly English town, Linden in Iowa County, re­ gistered 62 per cent Republican in both elections. Democratic gain can be attributed to the large " The Polish areas were the towns of Hull, Sharon (Portage County), Pike Lake (Marathon), and Dodge (Trempealeau) ; and wards 14 and 18 in Milwaukee. "' Examination of a plat map of Hartford makes the division of the city more evident. In addition to the " Franklin, Montpelier (Kewaunee County) ; Milla- differences in the surnames of land owners, the dore (Wood); and Castle Rock (Grant). first ward's churches were Congregational and '^ The other Belgian towns were Green Bay, Hum­ Methodist. The second ward had three churches: boldt (Brown County) ; Union, and Brussels (Door). a German Catholic, a Lutheran, and Zion Evangelical.

288 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

TABLE 6 VOTE ANALYSIS, 1884-1890, OF THE MOST GERMAN AND MOST SCANDINAVIAN TOWNS, WAUPACA COUNTY

Town Total Vote Cast Republican Percentage of Total Vote 1884 1886 1888 1890 1884 1886 1888 1890 Heavily German: Caledonia 150 120 149 185 10 56 23 9 Larabee 235 170 226 253 64 74 66 34 Dupont 270 233 278 259 69 61 59 44 Fremont 154 140 147 150 42 51 40 27 Union 170 141 173 162 31 44 47 40 Bear Creek 180 139 173 160 39 53 39 28 Heavily Scandinavian: Scandinavia 245 218 284 220 92 89 94 85 lola 244 230 271 159 87 92 93 83 Farmington 218 212 253 220 88 94 89 81 St. Lawrence 192 196 230 196 86 88 89 86 Heavily Native and Scandinavian: Dayton 179 189 210 168 73 74 82 79

again voted 61 per cent for Hoard, but the towns. (The total vote and Republican per­ Republican percentage in the German ward centages for 1884--1890 for the six most Ger­ fell to 29 per cent. Milwaukee's ethnic ward man, the four most Scandinavian, and the patterns are much more complex, but looking one heavily native town are summarized in at the city as a whole, it is obvious that the table 6.) The German townships all experi­ total vote increased sharply in only those enced a marked shift to the Democratic party wards heavily populated by Germans or Poles. in 1890. Seven voting units in the county— The Poles voted even more solidly Democra­ four townships and three cities—shifted from tic than usual; the shifts in the German wards the Republican to the Democratic column; have already been discussed. Changes in the all but one had a majority of voters of Ger­ other Milwaukee wards were minor; for the man stock. The six towns and one city which most part, the turnout declined by a few posted heavy Republican majorities in both hundred votes, which was normal for an off- 1888 and 1890 offer a sharp contrast. None year election, and the Republican percentages had German populations greater than 20 per paralleled those of 1888. cent, and most were smaller than 10 per cent. Waupaca County, which had large German Six of the seven had significant percentages and Scandinavian populations, provides a han­ of Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish residents; dy microcosmic view of the behavior of both the seventh, Dayton, had the largest propor­ of these groups. Waupaca remained Republi­ tion of native-born Americans in the county, can in 1890, but its plurality fell from 1,616 and Scandinavians made up most of its for­ to 450 votes, and the Republican percentage eign-born voters. dropped 10.5 per cent. The difference be­ The pattern described above was by no tween the German and Scandinavian towns means peculiar to Waupaca County. Buffalo within the county is striking. The 10 per County, populated by Germans and Swiss cent drop in the county's total vote was below along the Mississippi River and by Scandina­ the state average, but was not evenly distri­ vians in the inland towns, was almost identi­ buted: the total vote fell greatly in the Scan­ cal in its behavior, and other counties which dinavian towns (41.3 in lola), but actually had concentrations of both German and Scan­ increased in three of the heavily German dinavians voted similarly.

289 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

'X'HE ROLE OF NATIONAL ISSUES, espe- and southern parts of the state was not struck •*• cially that of the McKinley tariff, in the by the depression which haunted commodity election of 1890 has to some extent been producing regions. The western, northwest­ obscured and underestimated by historians, to ern, and some central areas of the state were in whom the excitement of the Bennett Law has the last phase of a transition from an economy been particularly appealing.^^ Democrats based on wheat and other staples to a more made striking gains around the nation. In balanced one of dairy farming and livestock terms of congressional losses, many states production.'^^ In some respects these regions paralleled Wisconsin's loss of six of its seven were like parts of Minnesota and Iowa which Republican members: Iowa lost six of ten, felt the decline sharply and which were prone Michigan five of nine, Minnesota four of five. to support splinter agrarian parties. The rise Republican losses in the agriculturally de­ in consumer prices in 1890 affected this part pressed Plains States were even more spec­ of the state more than the dairy regions. tacular."" There is no doubt that in eastern Wiscon­ Clearly the agricultural decline which had sin the dominant issue was the Bennett Law. plagued the midwestern farmer since the The eastern and northeastern counties con­ 1870's, and which had become more acute tained the bulk of Wisconsin's German popu­ since the mid-1880's, was beginning to be lation as well as the majority of the state's felt in politics. The pinch of lower commodity Catholics; it was the center of the conflict prices and rising consumer prices was felt over the public and parochial school issue. Al­ most severely by staple crop farmers; by 1890 though some of the western counties, parti­ corn-hog areas also were struck, and hog cularly those along the Mississippi, had large prices reportedly hit new lows in 1890. In German concentrations, the area as a whole the wheat-growing areas, the Farmers' Alli­ was dominated by the native American and ances multiplied with amazing rapidity, and Scandinavian elements. It was in this half of many of the congressional losses in Minnesota the state that the tariff issue proved decisive. and the Plains States in 1890 were to Farm­ Dissatisfaction with the McKinley tariff evi­ ers' Alliance candidates or Democratic candi­ dently persuaded many farmers and workers dates having Alliance support. In state after to vote Democratic, particularly in the con­ state in 1890, the McKinley tariff was blamed gressional contests. Many other Republicans, for rising consumer prices and consequently although equally dissatisfied with the tariff for the Republican defeats which followed. In but loath to vote Democratic, stayed away a few states, ethnic-oriented issues such as from the polls. Both responses were detri­ prohibition in Iowa and a school law similar mental to the Republicans. to the Bennett Law in Illinois also assisted In 1888, not a single county in the western the Democratic party." and northwestern regions voted Democratic; Wisconsin's agriculture was undergoing a in 1890, nine shifted to the Democracy, a transition during the late 1880's and managed much lower percentage than in the eastern to escape much of the general decline. The half. Although most western counties remained predominantly dairy economy in the eastern Republican, many of them suffered some of the largest declines in Republican percentage of the total vote. In many cases these losses were sustained in heavily Scandinavian coun­ ties as well as in German areas. Dissatisfac­ "° Schafer was the only student of the controversy to tion with Republican national policies rather stress the importance of the tariff issue in addition to the Bennett Law. See "Editorial Comment," 458^59. than with the Bennett Law was primarily re- Another reason for the neglect of the tariff issue may be the reliance of other scholars upon Milwaukee and other eastern Wisconsin newspapers; the Ben­ nett Law did not receive such full attention in the western part of the state. '" Eric E. Lampard, The Rise of the Dairy In­ '"' Ibid.; Faulkner, Politics, Reform and Expansion, dustry in Wisconsin: A Study in Agricultural 112-118. Change, 1820-1920 (Madison, 1963), 115. See also '^ Faulkner, Politics, Reform and Expansion, chaps. Joseph C. Schafer, A History of Agriculture in Wis­ 3, 5; Merrill, Vilas, 160-163. consin (Madison, 1922), chaps. 6, 8.

290 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890 sponsible for the downturn in Republican for­ a group in central Wisconsin invited Vilas to tunes in western Wisconsin. address them on "the issues of the day, espe­ Wisconsin Republicans had taken note of cially the tariff," they added parenthetically, the situation early. One of Haugen's corre­ "the Bennett Law cuts no figure here."''^ spondents blamed the defection on "bad con­ The importance of the tariff in the western ditions with farmers, poor crops, low prices part of Wisconsin can be shown by a compari­ and all that—believed by them to be worse son of the vote for governor and that for Con­ than they really are. . . ." Profit-seeking re­ gress. With the exception of Haugen, Wiscon­ tail merchants raised prices and placed the sin's Republican Congressmen tried hard to blame on often nonexistent increased duties keep the Bennett Law out of their campaigns, in the new law.'^^ claiming it was a state issue only. They were An important indication of the importance fully aware, however, that the law might lose of the tariff in the minds of voters was that them normally Republican votes. Haugen's in western Wisconsin the Bennett Law took largely Scandinavian district was staunchly a decided second place to the tariff in the Republican enough to sustain both him and local press of both parties, a direct reversal Hoard. Haugen ran slightly behind Hoard, a of the situation in the eastern counties.''* When normal occurrence, but the Democratic con­ gressional candidate ran 857 votes ahead of Peck. "Griff O. Jones to Haugen, June 4, 1890, Haugen The two remaining western districts, the Papers. Haugen recalled a local merchant who told third and seventh, show the role of the tariff him he would have to raise the price of sugar because of the new tariff; in reality, the McKinley law put more clearly. In the third district, three-term sugar on the free list. Pioneer and Political Re­ incumbent Robert M. La FoUette was at first miniscences (Madison, 1929), 94-95. overconfident and spent valuable time cam­ paigning in other districts. La FoUette had also made a few political blunders in the distribution of his patronage in 1889 which had created animosity towards him among some local leaders in Grant and Iowa counties who refused to work for his re-election.'''^ These local squabbles, however, could have cost La FoUette no more than a few hundred votes. The Bennett Law did have some effect in the district, particularly among the heavily Catholic population in parts of Grant Coun­ ty,'''' but the tariff was primarily responsible

'* For example, the columns of the Eau Claire News (Democratic) and Leader (Republican) were filled with attacks and defenses, respectively, of the new tariff. Even with Eau Claire's sizable German element, the Bennett Law controversy took second place in both papers. "H. M. Ayer (Lodi) to Vilas, October 18, 1890, in the Vilas Papers. ™"Phil" to Sam Harper, October 24, 1890; Charles Harper to Sam Harper, October 27, 1890, in the Robert M. La FoUette Papers, State Historical So­ Society's Iconographic Collection ciety of Wisconsin. Peck (wearing suspenders) and (left to right) a ^'' La FoUette's managers worried about the German Mr. McLean, an unidentified man, and Horace A. J. vote in Grant County, but hoped that some who cut Upham, a Milwaukee lawyer, during a fishing trip Hoard would still vote for La FoUette. They worked on former Congressman Isaac Stephenson's timber- quietly among German Lutheran ministers to secure land, probably along the Escanaba River in Michigan, their support for La FoUette. They feared desertion about 1898. by Catholics, however, as reports were received of

291 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 for La FoUette's defeat by more than 1,000 parties ran slightly behind that for the gov­ votes. ernor and other state officers. It was the major issue in the campaign. "You hear little else than tariff on the street," f I ^HIS detailed, statistical analysis of the one of La FoUette's correspondents reported; -'- Republican defeat in 1890 has revealed he also wrote that twenty Platteville tobacco that: (1) the Republicans lost thousands of workers were going Democratic because of votes on both the Bennett Law and McKinley the tariff. A Dane County worker warned of tariff issues; (2) either issue, by itself, might defections among lifelong Republicans who have cost the Republicans the loss of the state, believed that the McKinley tariff hurt the but the landslide which occurred was not pos­ laboring class.'^* In the vote tally. Hoard sible without both issues acting together; (3) polled fifty-nine votes more than La FoUette in general, each of the two issues operated in the five-county district.'^^ The Democratic within its own geographical and ethnic sphere: congressional candidate, however, ran more the Bennett Law dominated in the eastern part than 600 votes ahead of Peck to post his siz­ of the state, which contained most of the able plurality over La FoUette. ethnic groups who reacted the most violently In the seventh district, north of La FoUette's to the law; the tariff dominated in the west­ along the Mississippi, Hoard carried the seven ern part of the state, where there were fewer counties by a slim 282 votes; Republican Germans and where economic conditions made Congressman Ormsby Thomas lost by 2,002 it easier to look upon the tariff issue as cru­ votes. cial. The difference in support for governor and Congressman reflects the dissatisfaction over the tariff. Hoard's only connection with the tariff was his Republican party label, whereas the Republican Congressmen had helped frame and pass the tariff law. Evidently in the west­ EMOCRATIC PLEDGES ern part of the state a large number of Re­ publicans supported Hoard and the Bennett D>^^aND ACTION! 92,700.38 For Each and Every "Working Day In IBPX Law but scratched the party's congressional PLEDGE IN 1890. ""Wo denounce tbd Bennett Law an unnnr-nmmry, untglso. uncomtl- candidate in opposition to the McKinley tutional, un-American and un-democratlc and demand Its rep«*l-" DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. tariff. Comparison with the eastern part of ACTION IN 1891. the state bears this out. The congressional Bennett La'w repealed Feb. Qth, 1801. PLEDGE IN 1890. districts in the east, where the tariff took a "•Wo pledge that the Democratic Party, 11 entrusted •with the State Oovemment, vrlll reduce state expeasea to the point nece»- back seat to the Bennett Law, provide a decid­ ••ry lor an economical administration of state aftalrs." ed contrast. The vote for Congress followed DEIVIOCRATIC PLATFORM. ACTION IN 1891. the normal pattern relative to the guberna­ (Tiwo Items only.j Legislative Expenses (Including Blue Boobi, 1680 ... $100,130.00 torial vote; the vote for Congressman of both 1891 . . . 1B1^35.C7 Reduotlon under Democratic Admlnlstrntlon. 18,003.33 Public Printing lOther than leglalatlvci. 1889 36,a4S.OO •' " " 1891 22,670.27 Reduction imder Democratic Administration 13,60S.82 PLEDGE IN 1890. "That it •will cover Into the treasury all Interest of state funds." DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. ACTION IN 1891. Catholic priests instructing congregations to vote Interest paid into treasury in 1891 S20,073.43 Excess o( interest on permanent InvcBtmcnt ol trust straight Democratic tickets. See Charles Harper to funds "over average o! previous 6 years." .... $42,100.00 Sam Harper, August 1, October 27, 1890; W. A. PLEDGE IN 1890 Johnson to Sam Harper, October 23, 1890, in the La "That It •will vigorously prosecute legal proceedlnjts to recover FoUette Papers. interest moneys heretofore taken by Treasurers." ACTION IN 1891. ''" Charles Harper to Sam Harper, October 22, 27, Judge Ne^wman's decision: "The la^w is the standard of the 1890; James F. Taylor to Sam Harper, October 23, Treasurer's duty and the medsure ol his right. It all the while warned him that this was not his money Judgment should be 1890, in the La Follette Papers. for the state for the amount of money detained by the Treasurers ™ La FoUette's assertion in his Autobiography that with interest from the time when it should have been paid to he ran 700 votes ahead of his ticket is erroneous. their successors." Amount detained with interest and minj •!•]. r« His claim that "the machine leaders" worked secret­ due the State JANUARY 1st, 1892, i /tH,/ / I.3D ly against him in his district while he was away is Total $829,514.14. or $2,709-88 for Each "Working Day of 189L also not supported by evidence. See Robert M. La Society's Iconographic Collection Follette, A Personal Narrative of Political Experi­ A Democratic party campaign poster proclaiming the ences (Madison, 1913), 133-134. fulfillment of its promise to repeal the Bennett Law.

292 WYMAN: ELECTION OF 1890

In the final analysis, it is clear that of the til the free silver crusade of the mid-1890's two issues, the Bennett Law was the more im­ and the new issues of the emerging progres­ portant, not only in determining the outcome sive movement once again pushed ethnic and in 1890, but also in shaping the state's politics religious considerations into the background. for the next several years. The Bennett Law For both parties in 1890, however, the de­ was responsible for swinging the most votes bate over the relative causes of the election into the Democratic column; the nature of results had little relevance. What concerned those votes was also crucial. The shift of the Republicans was how they could regain thousands of German Protestant votes demon­ their usual ascendancy in the state; the Demo­ strated both to the political parties and to the crats were equally concerned about how they Germans themselves the key position of the could consolidate their gains. Many leaders German-American vote in Wisconsin. As in in both parties hoped that the impending re­ 1873, the German vote, particularly the Ger­ peal of the Bennett Law would remove it per­ man Protestant vote, had proved to hold the manently from the state's politics. The pre­ balance of power. The bitterness and depth of judices and emotions which the controversy the emotions incited in 1890 plagued the con­ had aroused or intensified, however, were not duct of Wisconsin politics for almost a de­ so easily suppressed or forgotten.*" cade, as each party continued to exploit for its own purposes the ethnic and religious an­ tagonisms aroused during the campaign. These antagonisms dominated the voting de­ " The Bennett Law was repealed by the 1891 legis­ cisions of thousands of Wisconsin voters un­ lature.

Featured in the Winter, 1967—1968, issue was an article, "The Fox River Valley in Paintings," by Alice E. Smith, illustrated with color reproduc­ tions of a series of twelve riverside scenes painted in 1856 by Samuel M. Brookes and Thomas H. Stevenson. Six of these paintings have been handsomely reproduced in full color in approximately the same size as the originals (fifteen inches wide and of varying heights, all suitable for framing) by the Bergstrom Paper Company, which generously made pos­ sible their reproduction in the Magazine. A limited supply of portfolios containing scenes of Little Chute, Menasha, De Pere, Grand Chute, Rapid Croche, and Green Bay is available to readers on application to Mr. Ralph B. Tippet, Marketing Manager, Bergstrom Paper Company, Berg­ strom Road, Neenah, Wisconsin 54956.

293 ORIGINS OF THE UNITED STATES COLONIAL SYSTEM: THE ORDINANCE OF 1787

By JACK E. EBLEN

T^HE MONTH OF JULY, 1787, was one of colonial government for the public domain -'- the most momentous in American his­ north of the Ohio River. One of the most tory. In that month the Philadelphia Conven­ significant laws in American history, the tion and the Confederation Congress simul­ Northwest Ordinance prescribed the philo­ taneously resolved fundamental problems of sophical and structural framework for a government leading to the formal organiza­ United States colonial system based on that tion of the first United States empire. The of the old British Empire. The Ordinance de­ Philadelphia Convention hammered out the fined republicanism and specified it to be the basic provisions for a new constitution to only acceptable form of government for the establish a stronger central government. In colonies and future states. Its basic ideas were hatching its plan to replace the Articles of to be applied more or less successfully in the Confederation, the Convention also worked United States possessions for over 175 years out the ideas and mechanics of federalism be­ and its provisions were to lay the foundation tween the states, and formulated the concept for the governments of the thirty-one public of a federal empire. Controversy over the lands states and Hawaii. In short, the Ordi­ exact form of the empire was to result in the nance led to the imposition of a uniform sys­ unanimous adoption, in August, of Gouver- tem of politics throughout the American em­ neur Morris' vague proposal, which simply pire. Together, then, the Philadelphia Con­ granted the new Congress imperial powers vention and the Confederation Congress in without deliniating or delimiting them, rather July, 1787, adopted co-ordinate parts of a than James Madison's more detailed plan.^ system for a federal republican empire that In the meantime, the Confederation Con­ was to shape the course of United States his­ gress, sitting in New York City, had been tory. moving along a parallel line. On July 13, Contrary to standard interpretations, the 1787, after more than a year of sporadic de­ Ordinance of 1787 was not an adjunct of the bate, it enacted a relatively precise plan of Ohio Company's land scheme, designed to promote settlement in the Northwest. Nor did the Confederation Congress enact it pre­ ^ See Alpheus H. Snow, The Administration of cipitously under pressure from the Reverend Dependencies: A Study of the Evolution of the Manasseh Cutler, the Company's lobbyist. Federal Empire, with Special Reference to American Cutler had little if any influence over the Colonial Problems (New York, 1902), 454-473, 538- 539. final form or content of the Ordinance. In-

294 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787 stead, the Northwest Ordinance had distinct of states in the West, or incorporation into pre-Revolutionary colonial origins and evolved the eastern confederation. Only two of these in stages. This evolution was the work of the forms, however, were open to Virginia—if it three men—Thomas Jefferson, James Mon­ could make good on its claims—because it roe, and Nathan Dane—who successively dom­ obviously lacked authority to incorporate fu­ inated the congressional committees charged ture western states into the existing eastern with devising a frame of government for the confederacy. Jefferson did not indicate public domain between early 1784 and July whether Virginia would create a number of of 1787. separate nation states or a confederation of states in the West, perhaps implying that the westerners were to choose their own course. EFFERSON was probably the first man J to formulate the basic principles for a Similarly, he was silent on the size and United States colonial policy. In 1776 Vir­ number of states to rise out of the West. As ginia made extravagant claims of ownership he moved from the second to the third draft to most of the land west of the Appalachian of the constitution, Jefferson simply decided Mountains. By generously interpreting the there should be several colonies, each of an "west and northwest" sea-to-sea boundary pro­ "appropriate" size.^ visions of the 1609 colonial charter, Virginia Western land disposal became a major na­ claimed title not only to Kentucky but also to tional issue before Virginia took steps to all of the land west of Pennsylvania north of implement Jefferson's constitutional provi­ the Ohio River—that is, the entire Northwest sions, and a consensus emerged that rejected Territory. But Jefferson believed in the classi­ the only alternatives Virginia had for the cal idea that republican states are inevitably ultimate status of its proposed western colo­ small and did not think democratic republi­ nies. By 1780 the consensus favored the or­ can institutions could flourish in so large ganization of a national inland empire and a state. Since he was unable or unwilling the full incorporation of western colonies into at this time to reconcile classical republican­ the existing union. Maryland's persistent re­ ism with imperialism, he feared that unless fusal to ratify the Articles of Confederation its size was drastically reduced an undemo­ had centered on the western land problem, cratic imperial government would develop as and on September 6, 1780, the Virginia dele­ the populated area of Virginia increased. gates finally introduced a "recommendation" in Congress intended to meet Maryland's ob­ Early in 1776, when drafting a constitu­ jections. Jefferson, who was then governor tion for Virginia, Jefferson acted to insure of Virginia, undoubtedly had a hand in draft­ the permanence of republicanism in his state. ing the recommendation. It surely reflects He tried to raise to the sanctity of constitu­ his new attitude toward the West and marks tional law his ideas for preventing the emerg­ his emergence as an imperialist. Assuming ence of an imperial state by incorporating a that a peace treaty ending the war would compact article between the state and the peo­ assure United States sovereignty over all ple who would settle its western land claims. He provided for the settlement of the trans- Appalachian west through the distribution of fifty-acre headrights and the independence of any given colonial area when it became ^Julian P. Boyd (ed.), The Papers of Thomas Jef­ ferson (16 vols., Princeton, N.J., 1950 ), 1:329- politically mature. In this way Jefferson 386; Paul Leicester Ford (ed.). The Works of Thomas would have had Virginia voluntarily limit its Jefferson (12 vols., New York, 1904-1905), 2:178- 179. The article, in somewhat different form, was size to preserve republicanism. Jefferson did incorporated in the adopted Virginia constitution, not specify the level of political sophistication and also left these questions open. required for independence, but he did guaran­ Incorporation implies two choices, although only one was acceptable at the time. Territories may be tee complete sovereignty once a colony be­ incorporated and become states or remain in a spe­ came a state. In contemporary usage "sov­ cial category, as Puerto Rico has. Wake and Guam ereignty" could take any of three forms— are wholly unincorporated territories as they fall fully outside the Constitution. See Snow, Dependen­ independent nation states or a confederation cies, 465-468.

295 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

States claiming western land promptly acted on the congressional resolution. Before the end of 1781 Congress received cessions of the principal claims to land north of the Ohio River, but the Virginia General Assem­ bly attached unacceptable conditions to its act of cession and did not alter them to the satisfaction of Congress for another two years. So Congress did not obtain sole title to the Northwest Territory until it accepted the Vir­ ginia deed of cession on March 1, 1784— more than a year after the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolution and Britain recognized United States claims to a Great Lakes-Missis­ sippi River boundary.* A national plan for empire was now necessary, and Jefferson introduced one immediately after Congress accepted the Virginia deed of cession.

TN FEBRUARY, 1784, Congress had ap- -*- pointed Jefferson chairman of a com­ mittee to draft a plan for the temporary gov­ ernment of the West.^ The committee was to prepare a bill to fulfill the terms of the state Society's Iconographic Collection land cessions—particularly Virginia's, which Thomas Jefferson, from an engraving of Gilbert Stuart's portrait owned by the Bowdoin College Jefferson undoubtedly influenced heavily. Museum of Art. Congress had to recognize state land reserves in the Northwest and to divide the West into lands north of Florida and east of the republican states which would be admitted Mississippi River, it urged states claiming to the Union as equal and perpetual members. western lands to cede them to Congress on Moreover, both the Congressional resolution the grounds that "the back lands, ... se­ of 1780 and the Virginia act of cession re­ cured by the blood and treasure of all, quired future states to be between 10,000 ought, in reason, justice, and policy, to be con­ and 22,500 square miles in area—roughly sidered a common stock, to be parcelled out between the present areas of Maryland by Congress." As passed on October 10, the (10,577) and West Virginia (24,181).^ congressional resolution further stipulated that, under Congress, "the unappropriated lands shall be . . . formed into distinct re­ 'JCC, XXV:560; Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, publican states, which shall become members 6:573-574; Francis Newton Thorpe, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and of the federal union, and have the same rights Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and of sovereignty, freedom and independence, Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United as the other states: . . . each state shall . . . States of America (7 vols., Washington, D.C., 1909), 955-956; Merrill Jensen, The Articles of Confedera­ contain a suitable extent of territory, not less tion: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional than one hundred nor more than one hundred History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781 and fifty miles square."^ This resolution rep­ (Madison, 1962), 235-238. "Compare JCC, XXV:693n, with Boyd (ed.), resents the first general statement of a na­ Jefferson Papers, 6:584-585. Boyd contends that the tional colonial policy, the first stone laid editor of the JCC erred, that Congress in fact set in the construction of a federal empire. up the committee for western government on Feb­ ruary 3, 1784, not on December 18, 1783. Jefferson headed a committee created on the latter date, but it was not charged with devising a government for "Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 the West. (34 vols., Washington, D.C., 1904-1937), XVII:806- "/CC, XVIII:915-916; Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Pa­ 808, XVIII:915-916, hereafter cited as JCC. pers, 6:573-574.

296 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

The report Jefferson presented on March 1 became the Ordinance of 1784.'' Though he had solicited suggestions, the plan Jefferson offered was his own brainchild. It followed the general principles for a colonial policy laid down in Congress, but in drafting it Jefferson decided to exceed his instructions, to write a compact suitable for imperialistic expansion. His rapid ideological transforma­ tion is evident in the various drafts of his report. Starting with George Washington's idea of establishing a single district in the eastern part of the Northwest Territory, he soon chose to carve six states, which he called A, B, C, D, E, and F, out of the territory now occupied by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Kentucky was not within the ceded territory. Not long after drawing geographic­ ally unachievable boundaries for these states, he abandoned that plan in favor of one for dividing all the land between the Appalachians Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XI and the Mississippi north of Florida into Jefferson's fanciful names for ten of the proposed squares, along lines of longitude and lati­ states. tude, to form small states of 14,000 to 17,000 square miles. In this manner Jefferson to make some provision for the admission of moved from the consideration of a govern­ states, Jefferson's instructions were simply mental policy for the land Congress possessed to furnish a plan for "temporary government." to the formulation of a broad colonial policy Instead, he devised a four-stage process to embrace all the western lands he hoped through which each of the proposed colonies Congress would someday control. If not would progress individually to statehood.^ yet thinking of expanding the national domain, He made no provision for government during he was clearly anticipating additional land the early years—or decades—of settlement, cessions by the southern states to enlarge suggesting he believed that either rudimen­ the public domain. In particular, he thought tary local government would then be unnec­ Virginia was still too large and ought to essary or ad hoc arrangements would suffice. cede the area that roughly coincides with the At an indeterminate point the settlers were state of West Virginia.^ to establish a "temporary" government using the constitution and laws of one of the origi­ Although the terms of the state land ces­ nal states. During this second stage they could sions would seem to have dictated the need begin dividing the territory into counties and townships. The second stage would continue until the population within the prospective state reached 20,000. Then, upon receiving 'Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:603-607; JCC, XXVI: 118-120. proof of the size of the population and of " Ideas and proposals that preceded the establish­ the desire of the people. Congress was to ment of Jefferson's committee may be found in JCC, appoint the times and places for the elec­ XXV:690-693; Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:582- 584; George Washington to James Duane, September tion and meeting of a convention to draw 7, 1783, in John C. Fitzpatrick (ed.). The Writings up a permanent state constitution. The third of George Washington from the Original Manuscript stage began with the inauguration of the Sources, 1745-1799 (39 vols., Washington, D.C., 1931-1944), 27:133-140. Boyd (ed.), Jefferson permanent state government, but the quasi- Papers, 6:585-600, has an excellent discussion of the evolution of Jefferson's thought, followed (pp. 600-616), by various forms of the draft ordinance. See also Edmund C. Burnett, The Continental Con­ gress (New York, 1964), 597-599. *Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:587-588.

297 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

State could not apply for admission to the Union, the fourth stage, until its population reached that of the least populous of the thirteen original states. In the meantime, during the second and third stages, the colony could send a representative to Congress who would have the right to debate but not to vote.'" Jefferson's plan was paradoxical. On the one hand it gave the appearance of congres­ sional noninterference, yet it set up a half­ hearted empire. The settlers were to take the initiative and do all the work. Congress was to assume no financial, administrative, or protective responsibility for the territories. On the other hand, the plan limited western self-determination. It prescribed routes of development and rigidly restricted western actions. Settlers were expected to obtain con­ gressional consent before organizing govern­ PauUin, Historical Geography ments and to enter the successive stages only Neither Jefferson's report nor the Ordinance of 1784 at the times and in the ways authorized. Con­ specified the exact number of states to be created, but privately fourteen were mentioned. This map is gress alone could set the time and place, and based on the Jefferson-Hartley map, although it presumably the mode, of electing delegates alters the eastern border of states thirteen and to a constitutional convention. In all stages fourteen. the colonial governments were to govern the whole area of land within their future state ernments. Jefferson voted for the amend­ boundaries and to respect the limits im­ ment, but it lost. Two days later, Elbridge posed on their freedom of action by the Or­ Gerry of Massachusetts offered another dinance. One of the most important restric­ amendment, which Jefferson apparently tions was that Congress reserved to itself wrote, to give Congress even greater powers. all matters relating to the disposal of the It provided "That measures not inconsistent public lands. with the principles of the Confedn. & neces­ sary for the preservation of peace & good TOURING THE DEBATES on Jefferson's order among the settlers in any of the said •^-^ report it became clear that the delegates new states until they shall assume a temporary favored more congressional control over the Government as aforesaid, may from time to West than he had provided. They added three time be taken by the United States in Congress sections to the compact. These made member­ assembled."^^ Read immediately moved that ship in the confederacy perpetual, required western governments to be republican, and prohibited the higher taxation of lands of nonresidents than of territorial residents. The "The report of March 1, is in JCC, XXVI: 118- shift in thinking toward comprehensive con­ 120; and, in Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:603- 607. See also ibid., 6:585; and an important inter­ gressional participation in the development pretive letter, David Howell to Jonathan Arnold, of the colonies, however, was most evident February 21, 1784, in William R. Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, with the Jour­ in the adoption of a general article which nal of the Convention that Adopted the Constitu­ compromised the whole idea of western self- tion, 1765-1790 (Providence, R.I., 1870), 479-481. determination. On April 21, Jacob Read Part of the Howell-Arnold letter is in Edmund C. Burnett (ed.), Letters of Members of the Conti­ of South Carolina proposed an amendment nental Congress (8 vols., Washington, D.C., 1921- to permit Congress to appoint magistrates 1935), 7:452. Burnett, however, omits some im­ portant parts of the letter. and other officers for the territories until "/CC, XXVI:274-275, 278; Boyd (ed.), Jefferson the settlers formed their own temporary gov- Papers, 6:613.

298 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

Gerry's amendment be laid aside and that the enactment of laws in Congress, and this Congress reconsider his recently defeated could be accomplished only by amending the amendment. The delegates denied Read's mo­ Articles. tion and after altering it slightly adopted the Only by its lack of clarity in some places Jefferson-Gerry amendment. On the same did the Ordinance evade ultra vires difficul­ day, April 23, by the unanimous vote of ten ties. Jefferson wrote the Ordinance to include states, Congress enacted the Ordinance of "the territory ceded or to be ceded by in­ 1784.12 dividual states" and to authorize the organi­ Jefferson may have wanted the Gerry zation of states in lands not yet ceded, there­ amendment in the Ordinance to provide lee­ by depriving existing states of territory for way for future legislative needs and to en­ the benefit of the United States, despite con­ able Congress to intervene in territorial af­ gressional declarations to the contrary, unless fairs if absolutely necessary. But the word­ they voluntarily ceded additional lands. Be­ ing of the amendment suggests a broad con­ fore passing the Ordinance, Congress had de­ struction. In this sense, the Ordinance as he leted two of Jefferson's provisions which helped amend it both illustrates Jefferson's lacked constitutional bases: the abolition of reconciliation of republicanism with imperial­ slavery and hereditary titles in the West. ism and demonstrates that he was well on the Apparently none of the above constitutional way to becoming an advocate of a fully cen­ problems arose when Congress debated the tralized empire. Construed broadly, the Ordinance. In 1787 and 1788, however, James amended Ordinance did not simply transform Madison would use some of them as reasons the Confederation into an empire. It gave Con­ for adopting the new federal constitution. gress unlimited control over its colonies. Sub­ Unlike the Articles, he then argued, it would sequent events were to show that an increasing give Congress the authority to create and admit new states and take any other actions majority in Congress expected a broad in­ it considered to be in the national interest. terpretation to be necessary if not desirable. Gouverneur Morris put it more bluntly: the Although the Ordinance provided for the new constitution would provide a sound foun­ organization of an empire, it was fraught dation for the erection of any kind of empire with defects which made it impossible to im­ Congress might choose to create.^^ plement. As in 1776, when he included the article on the disposal of the West in his con­ If Jefferson believed he was writing higher stitution for Virginia, so in 1784 Jefferson law and sidestepping constitutional issues, intended the articles of the Ordinance to others were more pragmatic. Some members "stand as fundamental constitutions between of Congress who supported the Ordinance the original thirteen states and each of the possibly wanted to see if it would work. several states now newly described," not sub­ Probably more considered it to be inade­ ject to basic change at the whim of Congress. quate but backed it principally because it This raised some serious constitutional prob­ met the requirements of state land cessions lems. In the first place Congress could not and thereby completed the land transfers. make a law part of the constitution, yet the Some of the Congressmen may have opposed Ordinance may have had to be incorporated a stronger law. With the seemingly inoffen­ in the Articles of Confederation before it sive Ordinance, Congress could avert criti­ could be operative since the Articles did not cism while giving the states time to adjust to specifically empower Congress either to create the idea of the stronger general government or to admit new states. A more practical problem was that a change in the number of states in the Union would require a change in the constitutional majorities needed for ^"JCC, XXVI:278-279; Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Pa­ pers, 6:612-613; Francis S. Philbrick, The Laws of Illinois Territory, 1809-1818 (Springfield, Illinois, 1950), cxxv. Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:587- 588, discusses the constitutional problems. James Madison argued against the constitutionality of the "Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:612-613; JCC, Ordinance in Federalist Number 38. On Morris, see XXVI: 247, 274^-279. Snow, Dependencies, 458-465.

299 Vi^ISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 manifested in congressional administration of er create order among the frontiersmen nor the public domain. In time, the states might keep whites and Indians apart. yield to Congress the additional land as Jeffer­ Congress was unwilling to act under the son and others desired. Such considerations broad, discretionary Jefferson-Gerry amend­ help to explain both the apparently innocuous ment in the Ordinance of 1784 for several rea­ nature of the Ordinance and Congress' fail­ sons. The Ordinance envisioned the creation ure to attempt to implement it.'"* of at least seven states in the Northwest, and consequently necessitated the organization of W/"HATEVER the thinking in Congress, at least seven colonial governments. The boun­ ^' there were reasons for more positive daries of the proposed states, however, were congressional action than the Ordinance en­ not based on geographic features and con­ visioned, and others soon emerged. Some temporary maps were so inaccurate that they Easterners viewing the Illinois and Kentucky could not be used to indicate even their ap­ settlements doubted the feasibility of allow­ proximate locations. Therefore, the boun­ ing the alien and "half-savage" westerners daries had to be established by survey. As to have unbridled representative government. Congress was soon to find its hands full On the other hand, if the frontiersmen of the just surveying the seven ranges provided for isolated Kaskaskia and Wabash settlements in the Land Ordinance of 1785, the idea of in the Illinois Country had any idea of the undertaking this larger task could not have provisions of the Ordinance, they might have been appealing. But, since Congress reserved discovered that their settlements fell in three to itself the disposal of the public lands, it or four proposed states instead of being united would have to provide machinery for the in one. Of more immediate concern, the set­ survey and sale of land in each of the proposed tlements of the Northwest were too scattered, states. Moreover, Indian relations and asso­ too poor, and too small to support representa­ ciated military affairs were international in tive governments even if Congress had au­ character, so Congress would have to control thorized them. Western settlers, then, were and co-ordinate their conduct in each state. All unable to form temporary governments, even this suggests that even if the Jefferson-Gerry if they were not unwilling or too preoccupied. Yet, they cried for government, protection, amendment had not been in the Ordinance, and confirmation of their land claims. The Congress would have found it absolutely nec­ Ordinance of 1785, which provided for the essary to assume some kind of direct adminis­ survey and sale of land in eastern Ohio, an­ tration over its western colonies, at least ticipated new settlements in the territory that during the initial stages of settlement. would add to existing needs for control. Such No rational person, however, would advo­ a migration could only aggravate the Indian cate that the impoverished Congress actually problems which were already calling for fed­ establish and maintain the apparatus neces­ eral action. Additional settlements in state sary to give unity to Jefferson's system. The land reserves in the Northwest would simply very idea of continental mercantilism on compound this anarchy and discord. And which the empire rested precluded lavish con­ congressional declarations alone would neith- gressional expenditures for the support of an unwieldy administrative system in a prolif­ eration of territories. Like Parliament, Con­ "See Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 6:598-599; gress expected its colonies to be self-support­ Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, ing, not a burden on the national treasury. 479-481.

Few maps chart the correct boundaries proposed by He hoped to sell large quantities of his small, inex­ the Ordinance of 1784. One of the more interesting, pensive map to finance the construction of a pioneer if not the most accurate, is inventor John Fitch's steamboat. The sales were unsuccessful and today "Map of the North West Parts of the United States an original copy is a rarity. A thorough discussion of the problems of portraying cartographically the of America," which he based on two earlier maps and proposed state boundaries and the limitations of the his own observations of the area. In 1785 Fitch maps used with this article can be found in Julian drew his 29y-2-by-22-inch map, engraved it on a cop­ P. Boyd (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson per sheet, and printed copies with a cider press. (Princeton, 1953, 6:588-595).

300 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

Phillips, Fitch Map 301 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Congress' primary objectives were to settle the West at the least possible cost to itself and, through the sale of public lands, to raise money to avert financial embarrassment—or bankruptcy. Thus, because of the prohibitive costs implicit in the Ordinance of 1784, Con­ gress would not have acted under it even if it were able to locate the proposed states and even if the settlers assumed the responsibilities of organizing and supporting their own gov­ ernments. Since Congress intended to administer some western policies directly, the supposedly au­ tonomous western governments could avoid clashes and congressional interference only if they co-operated closely with the central government. It any case, as creatures of Congress the colonies were its inferiors re­ gardless of what the Ordinance said, and if they did not accept that status voluntarily. Congress could be expected to abridge their autonomy whenever it saw fit to assure the smooth execution of national policies. It is not surprising, therefore, that congressional thinking moved steadily away from the idea Dictionary of American Portraits of theoretically complete western autonomy Gilbert Stuart's portrait of James Monroe. to the position that Congress should assume direct control over all sectors of colonial af­ an inferior, if temporary, status in the cen­ fairs, including local government. tralized imperial system they were embracing. By the end of 1785, a number of American leaders must have felt a curious sense of TN 1785 James Monroe took a tour of the identification with Britain's colonial prob­ -*- West and returned home convinced that lems. The United States had just won its in­ Jefferson's Ordinance should be changed. As dependence after fighting a war born of the it was, the size of the proposed states was too nature of the British colonial system and of small and the population requirement for Parliament's attempts to enforce centralized statehood was too large. The provisions would administration. Now Congress was on the impede the growth of the West and might verge of imposing the same kind of admin­ frustrate all efforts to organize state gov­ istrative system on its own inland empire. ernments. Monroe was especially impressed In moving from the denunciation of one em­ by the poverty of the Great Lakes area and pire to the implementation of its own, how­ by its meager prospects for attracting settlers. ever, Congress seemed to have solved the He concluded that under the Ordinance of British dilemma of what to do with mature 1784 none of the colonies there might ever colonies. Seemed, because, as a law, especial­ acquire enough people to gain admission to ly one of dubious legality. Congress could the Union. If such areas were to be brought change or repeal the Ordinance at will—and into the Union, they would have to be annexed Congress would replace it with another ordi­ to other areas having a brighter outlook. nance in 1787. Only time would tell the Therefore, as soon as he returned, Monroe worth of the Ordinance's guarantees of even­ advised Congress to consider reducing the tual partnership in the empire, but they un­ number of states to be created in the North­ doubtedly made more palatable to former west. A division of the territory into three to "radicals" the relegation of the territories to five states would in his eyes be more judi-

302 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787 cious. It would equalize resources by giving On May 9, 1786, Monroe presented his each of the more promising of Jefferson's committee's first report.'^ In its refined form states a larger hinterland and a responsibility the report constituted the governmental ar­ for developing the poorer areas. ticles and part of the compact of the Ordi­ Congress took Monroe's proposal to reduce nance of 1787. Monroe unequivocally pat­ the number of states under consideration early terned the system of Colonial government in 1786. At the same time it set up a new after the British model.^'^ At the same time committee to review the whole problem of he gave form to Read's proposed amend­ government for the Northwest. The decision ment to the Ordinance of 1784 and de­ to organize the new committee probably grew veloped the broad imperial construction im­ out of Monroe's firsthand reports which con­ plicit in the Jefferson-Gerry amendment. Un­ firmed doubts about the general suitability like Jefferson, Monroe had kept the object of Jefferson's Ordinance. Monroe was sure of his work in sight, and his report furnished settlement everywhere in the West was going a relatively precise plan by which the West to be slow at best and thought federal direc­ would pass through two stages of political tion would be essential in the early years— evolution before admission to statehood. The at least until frontiersmen could form their plan explicitly applied only to the ceded own governments—and probably would be western lands—the Northwest Territory—but desirable until statehood. Monroe, as had Jefferson, clearly intended Congress made Monroe chairman of the that his proposed ordinance would serve as new committee. This was to be expected as a constitution until statehood. In the first he was the heir apparent in Congress to his stage, for which Jefferson had provided no mentor and fellow Virginian, Thomas Jeffer­ government, Monroe, by implication, made son, who was currently abroad on a mission the entire Northwest into a single administra­ to France. He was also Jefferson's logical tive district, thereby centralizing all elements successor by virtue of his recent experiences of colonial government. Congress was to ap­ which had gained him a reputation as an au­ point a single territorial governor who would thority on western problems. Finally, Mon­ hold office for an unspecified number of roe was generally regarded as the Congress­ years. He would be assisted by a five-man man best qualified to draft a practical plan council and a secretary, each appointed by of temporary government acceptable both to northerners and southerners. By early May the committee was hard at work, and Mon­ roe soon gave evidence of his abilities.^^ Michigan, 57,019; Wisconsin, 54,705. Note that these are larger states on the average than those carved out of the Southwest Territory, that all of the states created from the public lands east of the Mississippi River were smaller than Virginia (about 63,920 square miles before the Civil War), and that a num­ "Jefferson to Monroe, July 9, 1786, in Boyd ber of them were smaller than Massachusetts (about (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 10:112-113; James Monroe 38,850 square miles before 1820) and Pennsylvania to Jefferson, January 19, May 11, July 16, 1786, in (45,007 square miles). Stanislaus M. Hamilton (ed.), The Writings of James ^"The report is in JCC, XXX:251-255. The com­ Monroe (7 vols., New York, 1898-1903), 1:117-118, mittee was set up on March 27. Burnett (ed.). Let­ 127, 140-141; John M. Merriam, The Legislative His­ ters, 8:xxv. Until the report of May, 1787, the whole tory of the Ordinance of 1787 (Worcester, Massa­ territory was not explicitly to be a single administra­ chusetts, 1888), 17; Jay Amos Barrett, Evolution of tive district during the first stage, but this seems the Ordinance of 1787, with an Account of the to have been Monroe's intent. The reasons for Earlier Plans for the Government of the Northwest making the May, 1786, report in what might be Territory (New York, 1891), 34-36, 38. Whether taken to be a multiterritorial form were that Mon­ from Monroe's arguments or from two years of roe was following the letter of the cession laws observation, Jefferson himself was convinced that while working to get Congress to alter its stand his 1784 plan was not wholly adequate and that and the states to alter their cession acts. See the the ideal size of western states should be 30,000 preface to the May 9, 1786, report in JCC, XXX:251; square miles rather than the earlier 15,000. In other Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 36-38. For background words, by 1786, Jefferson had doubled his idea of see Burnett, Congress, 651-653. a state of "moderate size" and brought his thinking " Monroe to Jefferson, May 11, 1786, in Hamilton into line with Monroe's. The actual areas of the (ed.), Writings of Monroe, 1:127; Boyd (ed.), Jeffer­ five states created in the Northwest are: Ohio, son Papers, IX:S10-51l; Burnett (ed.), Letters, VIII: 40,972 square miles; Indiana, 36,185; Illinois, 55,930; 359-360.

303 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Congress for an unspecified term of years. a property and residence qualification for In addition. Congress was to appoint five office, and only those adult males who had judges to a territorial supreme court. They a fifty-acre freehold and were citizens or, if would hold office during good behavior. aliens, had been residents for one year, were During the first, or district, stage the to be eligible to vote.^" Significantly, neither governor was to administer the laws of one Monroe nor anyone else seems to have ques­ of the original states, divide the territory into tioned the prudence of transferring these con­ counties and townships, and appoint all nec­ servative eastern residence and property re­ essary civil officials and militia officers be­ quirements to western colonies, and this sug­ low the rank of major.^^ It would seem that gests that Monroe and the rest of Congress Monroe intended to give the district-stage wanted to guarantee the development of con­ governor both absolute executive powers and, servative western governments dominated by through the right to issue proclamations, com­ substantial landholders. plete legislative powers. In other words, Mon­ Monroe's second stage was almost identi­ roe's first stage was one of pure autocracy. cal in concept to the royal colonial govern­ When the free adult male population ments of the old British Empire. With the reached an unstated number, the territory appointed governor and council, the house could enter the second, or representative, of representatives would form a general as­ stage of colonial government. The transi­ sembly. It was to be competent to legislate tion to the second stage would begin with on all internal affairs insofar as its acts were the first meeting of the General Assembly fol­ not inconsistent with the provisions of the lowing the election of a house of representa­ Articles of Confederation, acts of Congress, tives. Monroe provided for Congress to as­ the state land cessions, and other covenants. sign the time and places of the elections, but In essence these restrictions were similar to the governor would presumably make the those of Jefferson's Ordinance. Monroe gave initial apportionment of the territory, accord­ Congress absolute control over representative ing to an as yet undetermined, fixed ratio of government through the governor, who had representatives to free adult males.'^ Pros­ an unqualified veto and the authority to con­ pective representatives would have to meet vene, prorogue, and dissolve the assembly at will. Apparently no one questioned the pro­ priety of giving the executive such broad pow­ ers, in spite of the complaints they had " The governor was empowered to commission all civil officials, but in this report the militia of­ aroused before the Revolution when they had ficers were to receive their commissions from Con­ rested in the hands of the royal governors. gress. In the report of September 19, 1786, and in all subsequent versions of the plan, the governor In July, 1787, Edward Carrington, then chair­ commissioned all militia officers he appointed. JCC, man of the committee reconsidering Monroe's XXXI :671. In the May report the governor was plan, perhaps reflected the general attitude charged with laying out counties and townships on petition from the settlers. JCC, XXX: 253. The in Congress in a letter to Jefferson. Referring July 13, 1786, report, however, authorized him to to the territorial governor's veto, he observed divide the territory as soon as possible and as necessary, and nothing was said about petitions from that during the British colonial period, "The settlers. JCC, XXX:404. The May report did not negative which the King of England had upon explicitly empower the governor to appoint local our Laws was never found to be materially governmental officials, but the conclusion that that was the intent is inescapable in light of the gover­ inconvenient."^' Unlike the British system, nor's general powers to organize governments. The July 13 report made the intent explicit. It provided that "Previous to the organization of the general Assembly, the governor shall appoint such Magis­ '^ The residence requirement for foreigners was trates and other civil officials in each county or raised to two years in the final form of the Ordi­ township as he shall find necessary" and that all nance of 1787. JCC, XXXII:313-320. local officials were to continue to be appointed by '^Edward Carrington to Jefferson, June 9, 1787, in the governor until statehood. Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 11:410. See also " These conflicting and overlapping powers of the Monroe to Jefferson, July 27, 1787, in ibid., 11:631. governor and Congress in the early reports were The May, 1786, provisions for second-stage govern­ more apparent than real, and they were worked ment are the same as those in the Ordinance of out in later drafts so that all executive functions 1787 except for the requirement that all bills origi­ were to be conducted by or through the governor. nate in the lower house.

304 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787 however, there was no formal hierarchy of There were two deletions of some conse­ appeals beyond the governor in either stage quence in the July report. Either Monroe or of Monroe's plan. Under it the governor would Congress, in earlier debates, struck out the lose little if any power in the second stage. requirement that the governor enforce the He would lose initiative in legislation, for laws of one of the original states during the example, only insofar as the requirement first stage. This probably grew out of a that all bills originate in the lower house belief that the laws of none of the eastern proved to be significant. states were likely to meet frontier needs fully. Monroe's May report was vague in several And, though not so stated in the draft ordi­ important respects. He did not specify wheth­ nance, it may have been understood that the er the laws of the original state used during governor would proclaim effective in the ter­ the first stage were to continue in force in ritory, or adapt, laws and parts of laws from the second stage until altered or repealed by various existing state codes to fill the statu­ the general assembly. Nor did he indicate how tory void until the second stage. Apparently, or when a state constitution was to be formed. the selection of laws was to be left entirely His provision for statehood simply stated that up to the governor. Under the provisions of a territory could be admitted to the Union the May report, he might have chosen laws by the seating of its delegates in Congress with the help of the council, but Monroe de­ when its population equaled that of the small­ leted the first-stage council from the plan est original state. In the meantime, the terri­ in July. In a cost-conscious Congress this tory could have a nonvoting delegate in Con­ was to be expected. During the first stage the gress during the second stage as under Jef­ council was a superfluous organ. The gover­ ferson's plan. nor might ask it for advice about important matters, but he was not obliged to consult RITING to Jefferson on May 11, Mon­ it. Consequently, Monroe now provided for W roe noted that "The most important the council and house of representatives to principles of the Act at Annapolis [Ordinance come into existence simultaneously. At the of 1784?] are you observe preserv'd in this re­ beginning of the second stage Congress was port." He added, "It is generally approv'd of to appoint five men to serve on the council but has not yet been taken up." It was not "during pleasure." Monroe did not prescribe taken up again until July 13, 1786, exactly one residence or property qualifications for coun­ year before Congress enacted the Ordinance. cillors, but since he required as a minimum In the revised report all the blanks were a 200-acre freehold and three years residence filled. Monroe gave the governor and secre­ in the territory to qualify for election to the tary three- and two-year terms respectively, lower house, it may be assumed that the and increased the governor's appointive pow­ council would represent the territory's larg­ er to include all militia officers below general est landowners and speculators.^^ rank. The second stage could now begin In the two months after Monroe submitted when there were 500 free adult males in the his revised report. Congress debated the plan territory. The house of representatives was to be elected annually on the basis of one representative for every fifty free adult males until its membership reached twenty. There­ ""JCC, XXX:404. The office-holding qualifica­ after the legislature was to adjust the appor­ tions for the house are confusing. Citizens of a tionment to maintain that number. Monroe state may not have had to meet the residence re­ quirements in the territory, but foreigners had to also reduced the lower house's control over be residents for an additional year to be eligible legislation by requiring only money bills to for office. On the other hand, state citizens had to originate in it.^^ own fifty acres above the 200-acre requirement for residents. As a whole, the section gives the im­ pression that Congress saw territorial settlers as neither citizens nor foreigners. If this was true, the section has important implications. Congress's '^JCC, XXX:404-406. See also footnote 17 above. attitude toward colonists in 1786 may have been As enacted, the Ordinance omitted even the require­ comparable to that of Congress around 1900 and ment that money bills originate in the lower house. of the British Parliament.

305 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

the legislative authority in the district stage. Now, it seems, the governor was to choose the territory's civil laws, while the court picked its criminal laws. Other unsettled issues were also manifested in September. The article on representative government regressed almost to its original form. The size of the house, the representa­ tion ratio, and the population requirement for initiation of the second stage were again omitted. Finally, there was a new population requirement for statehood reflecting the so- called northern bias of the committee. All reports since 1784 had provided for state­ hood when a territory's population reached that of the smallest of the original states. Now the committee raised the admission require­ ment to one-thirteenth of the population of the thirteen original states at the most recent 94 census. During the debate. Congress reduced the number of federal judges from five to three and filled the blanks in the section on repre­ sentative government. These provisions would appear unchanged in the Ordinance when it William S. Johnson of Connecticut, from a portrait was finally enacted. Congress decided that by Samuel J. Waldo, owned by Columbia University. the territory could not enter the second stage until it had 5,000 free adult male inhabitants. several times and the committee restudied it. This was a tenfold increase from Monroe's All this led to further changes but work report of July. Similarly, it authorized the stopped short of completion early in Sep­ election of one representative for every 500 tember. By then Monroe and several other free adult males, whereas in July the ratio members of the committee had left Congress had been 1:50. If more conservative, the new and nothing more could be done until Sep­ formula was more realistic than the earlier tember 18, when Congress reconstituted the one, given the size of the territory and the committee. William S. Johnson of Connecti­ current wide dispersal of the predominantly cut became chairman of the reorganized com­ French male population which certainly ex­ mittee and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts was ceeded 500, especially if it were now agreed among its new members. On the 19th the that the entire Northwest would be a single committee presented a new version of Mon­ administrative district, not only in the first roe's plan containing some important changes. stage but also during at least part of the Dane's hand was evident in the legal verbiage second.^^ regarding property rights, and possibly in the inclusion of the first positive guarantees of civil rights, habeas corpus and jury trial. ''JCC, XXXI: 502n, 56In, 563, 667n, 670-672; Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 42-43. For a discussion In this report the federal judges were em­ of the North-South split on the population require­ powered to adopt criminal laws for use dur­ ment see Staughton Lynd, "The Compromise of ing the first stage from the existing state 1787," in Political Science Quarterly, LXXXI:230- 238 (June, 1966). codes. In light of Monroe's original provi­ "^JCC, XXXI:670-672, 700-702, XXXII:242, 274- sion and its deletion in the July report, this 275; Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 42-43. Congress also provided that the legislature should determine new one suggests that there was some uncer­ both the number and apportionment of the house tainty in Congress as to who should exercise when its membership reached twenty-five. The

306 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

A FTER THE SEPTEMBER DEBATE, Con- -^*- gross took no further action on the plan for seven months. During this time it wit­ nessed the suppression of Shay's Rebellion and the triumph of the movement for revision of the Articles of Confederation, but it is im­ possible to say that these events had any political influence on the drafting of the Ordinance of 1787, since its governmental articles were already nearly settled. In April, 1787, less than a month before the Constitu­ tional Convention opened, the committee on western government presented another re­ vision of Monroe's plan.^'^ Now the entire Northwest was explicitly made a single ad­ ministrative district until Congress chose to divide it. The revised report also raised the terms of the secretary and assemblymen to four and two years respectively, and, more importantly, solved the problem of the di­ vided first-stage legislative authority. The governor and judges would exercise it jointly. Meeting together, a majority of them was to adopt those civil and criminal laws from the original states' codes which they thought best in Portraits suited frontier conditions. These laws were Manasseh Cutler, lobbyist for the Ohio Company, to remain in force until changed by the gen­ from a portrait at Ohio University. eral assembly in the second stage. On May 9, 1787, the plan passed its sec­ the tenure of councillors to five-year terms, ond reading. Its final reading was sched­ and lowered the population requirement for uled for the following day but, for a variety statehood. In all other respects the govern­ of reasons. Congress did not enact the Or­ mental provisions of the Ordinance adopted dinance until July 13. Just before its enact­ in July were identical to those in the plan ment, Congress added property qualifications read for the second time on May 9. As has for all federally appointed offices, changed been demonstrated, this plan was hardly more than a refinement of Monroe's original re­ port of May 9, 1786.^'' adopted Ordinance, however, simply limited the On May 9, 1787, the Reverend Manasseh house to twenty-five. It is generally overlooked that Jefferson's provi­ Cutler, lobbyist for the Ohio Company, ar­ sion for 20,000 inhabitants before a territory could rived in New York City, where Congress was enter the second level of representative government meeting. The following morning he appeared is essentially the same as the 5,000 free white adult male requirement of the Ordinance of 1787 for enter­ before that body to begin promoting his land ing the second stage and ten times Monroe's pro­ vision in the July, 1786, report. Adult males con­ stituted about a quarter of frontier populations. See Jack E. Eblen, "An Analysis of Nineteenth Century " See Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 43-45. Compare Frontier Populations," in Demography, 2:399-413 JCC, XXXII:281-283, with 313-320, and 333-343; (1965). More important, however, is the fact that and with Thorpe, Constitutions, 957ff; and Clarence the population requirement of the Ordinance of E. Carter (ed.), The Territorial Papers of the United 1784 applied to each of the predetermined states States (Washington, D.C., 1934 ), 11:39-50. The individually, whereas the requirement of the Ordi­ property qualification for governor was a 1,000-acre nance of 1787 was to apply to the entire Northwest freehold in the territory. For the secretary, judges, if it were still a single district when its adult male and councillors, it was a 500-acre freehold each, population reached 5,000. also to be in the territory. Congress was to appoint ^Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 43^5. See also JCC, the five councillors from a list of ten men nominated XXXII: 274-275; and Burnett (ed.). Letters, 8:xli. by the house of representatives.

307 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 scheme—a request that Congress grant the Company a vast and choice tract at the junc­ tion of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. No other evidence should be needed to show that he did not influence the drafting of the governmental articles of the Ordinance; that, in fact, there was little left in the whole Ordinance for him to affect by the time he arrived. On May 10 Congress also post­ poned the third and final reading of the Ordi­ nance. This and Cutler's appearance seem to be purely coincidental. The postponement emanated directly from the long-standing de­ sires of a number of congressmen to de­ bate adjournment for a vacation and removal of the proceedings to Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention was about to meet. Some members of Congress may have wanted Congress to be in Philadelphia to su­ pervise the Convention and keep it in check, but others wanted to be there because they were also delegates to the Convention. In addition, a final southern drive to strike out the one-thirteenth population requirement for statehood may have succeeded on the 10th, Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, for ichom Dane Coun­ ty, Wisconsin, was named; from a charcoal portrait thereby raising the need for further examina­ owned by the Society. tion and amendment of the Ordinance. In any case. Congress took no action on the 11th, and between then and July 6, it lacked the plan after Monroe left Congress—and dur­ a quorum. Obviously, a number of Congress­ ing the debates either of May 10 or of July 9, men were bent on leaving and would not be they secured its deletion. This left the Ordi­ deterred either by the western need for gov­ nance without any provision for statehood. ernment or Reverend Cutler's lust for land.^^ Simultaneously, a number of Congressmen When Congress again had a quorum, it from both the North and the South were press­ moved quickly to complete the long-overdue ing for amplification of the statehood pro­ business of supplying colonial government vision. Like Monroe, they strongly believed for the Northwest. On Monday, July 9, it the population required for admission should reorganized the committee on western govern­ be explicitly tied to the number of states to ment to make final revisions in Monroe's be created in the Northwest. They were about plan. The reconstituted committee had three to have their way. So were those northerners new members, one of whom, Edward Carring­ who, since 1785, had wanted to reintroduce ton of Virginia, became its chairman, but Jefferson's proposed prohibition of slavery Nathan Dane remained its most effective mem­ into the frame of government for the West. ber. The reasons for recommitting the Ordi­ The coincidence of these achievements sug­ nance are reasonably clear. Southerners had gests logroUing.^^ not willingly accepted the one-thirteenth popu­ lation requirement for statehood—written into =» Barrett, Ordinance of 1787, 46-50, 75-80; Mer­ riam, Ordinance of 1787, 14^16; JCC, XXXn:281n, 283; Lynd, "Compromise of 1787," 225-238, 246- 248. Writing to Rufus King on July 16, 1787, Dane •^See JCC, XXXII :283-297; Barrett, Ordinance (Burnett [ed.], Letters, 8:622) claimed that Con­ of 1787, 46-50; Burnett (ed.). Letters, 8:xli; Lynd, gress "tried one day to patch up M 's plan, but "Compromise of 1787," 225-238; and notes 32 and got some new ideas going and recommitted the 34. whole" project. He implied that when he got it

308 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

In revising the Ordinance, the committee duce the number of states to be created in incorporated Monroe's 1786 proposal for the the Northwest. It was partially to gain the eventual division of the territory into three initiative and forestall attempts to reduce the to five states. For at least a year and a half number to two that Monroe had introduced this idea for the division of the Northwest his proposal in 1786 for a three-to-five-way had been drifting aimlessly about in Con­ division of the territory. gress attracting only occasional attention. After Monroe left Congress, opponents of Monroe had proposed it separately and had western statehood obtained the higher ad­ deliberately omitted it from his plans of mission requirement they desired, but, this government. He did not feel that its inclu­ having now been struck out of the Ordinance, sion, though desirable, was essential to the they returned in mid-1787 with renewed adoption of a system of temporary govern­ interest to the idea of reducing the number ment. On the contrary, he feared that its in­ of states. Southerners would certainly have clusion would only delay the enactment of a been willing to strike a bargain. Being less law providing colonial government, since the interested in the potential number of new size of potential western states could not be states than in increasing their power in so increased without the consent of the states Congress with all deliberate speed, they could which had ceded land to Congress. By 1787, cheerfully agree to a reduction in the num­ these states were receptive to the idea of ber of states in return for northern acceptance creating larger states. of a smaller population requirement for state- Although Monroe wanted to divide the hood.30 Northwest into fewer states than Jefferson's As the statehood article was finally written, Ordinance permitted in order to improve everyone could take pride in having accom­ their chances of attaining statehood, he re­ plished his primary objective. Southerners ceived support from several quarters for might anticipate as many as five states emerg­ very different reasons. Both Cavaliers and ing from the Northwest to add considerable Yankees assumed that all western states would strength to their voice in Congress. Northern­ have a southern bias. For this reason many ers, or easterners more generally, could look northerners were bent on admitting the few­ forward to the eventual division of the terri­ est states possible. So were other easterners tory into only three states. This prospect who saw in the West a general threat to seems to have made many people jubilant. their power. Together they had labored to By so enlarging the size of future states and amend Jefferson's Ordinance to raise the pop­ setting the admission requirement at 60,000 ulation requirement for admission and re- inhabitants, not more than one of the three might ever qualify for statehood, and it might adopt "Eastern politics." The article, however, also contained the back in committee he discarded most of the plan important provision that permitted Congress and drafted a whole new one himself. What probab­ to admit states with a smaller population if ly happened was that, on July 9, when the popula­ it seemed desirable. Moreover, those people tion requirement was struck out of Monroe's plan during the debate, someone suggested that the num­ who thought the population requirement was ber of states carved out of the Northwest should high and possibly prohibitive erred badly. be included in the Ordinance and tied to the ad­ mission requirement as in the Ordinance of 1784. In reality the southerners got a better deal Undoubtedly someone also mentioned that the re­ in 1787 than they had in 1784, because the strictive clauses from the latter Ordinance had entrance requirement of 60,000 people worked somehow fallen from the new plan in the process of revision since Monroe first reported it. It would out to fewer than a population equal to that be surprising if someone else had not moved that, of the smallest original state. This should since the government was being explicitly framed (according to Monroe's original plan) to protect have been reasonably clear in 1787, but every- settlers' rights, their civil liberties also should be enumerated in the compact. Not even this last could remotely be called a new idea. All of these ideas had been around for some time and all but the last had always been explicitly associated with plans for '•"'JCC, XXXI: 738-739. See also notes 15, 32, western government. See notes 32 and 34. and 34.

309 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 tJs« COMMCITEB, softrj^t'S'^ M«-i*'.%i, SAt,r-uknfy, SIW. 5*«#. jvu. umr it.a Mf, Ordinance. One of the new articles restored all the restrictions Jefferson had imposed on western states in 1784. Most of these had been in Monroe's first draft but had been gradually lost in revision. The other articles augmented the list of civil liberties incor­ • #''»*'** porated the preceding September. On July 11, ^. •jj>.^i^~flt>/W.. 1787, after two days of work, the committee j'stttaftr* presented its newly revised and enlarged Or­ i,A.~i t" « --J !_ !»i -V •^•'ff",. ^ dinance. At this point it might be called -^. the Jefferson-Monroe-Dane Plan. Congress made some minor emendments and, on Fri­ day the 13th of July, after adding an amend­ i ... /' ment prohibiting slavery in the Northwest, adopted the Ordinance unanimously.^^ ^ ' ^'>K rpHE ORDINANCE OF 1787 provided for -*- three levels of government in place of the four in Jefferson's Ordinance of 1784. The

•^U.^*^

"^ The delegates from Maryland and Pennsylvania (including Arthur St. Clair, president of the Con­ federation Congress and soon to be governor of the . «&*.#. ^ Northwest Territory) were absent during these de­ bates and missed the final vote. See JCC, XXXII: 313-320, 333-343. The compact article in Jefferson's .<* /W* Ordinance was restrictive only. Monroe specifically stated that a primary objective of his plan of gov­ ernment was the protection of settlers' rights. His *i^ £^ positive emphasis and concern for governmental pro­ visions in this context may indicate that he expected National Arciiivcs a bill of rights to be added to his plan at some point after the governmental articles were refined. Heavily edited page of a preliminary draft of the The absence of concern over the deletion of the Ordinance of 1787. restrictions placed on the territory in the first draft re-enforces the idea that Congress was operating on one apparently underestimated Delaware's the same assumption. Then, too, Monroe said, in effect, that he hoped the number of states to be population. In 1790 Delaware, the smallest created in the Northwest would be incorporated in state in the Union, had 59,096 inhabitants; the Ordinance before it was passed, although he was in 1800 it was still the smallest with 64,273, willing to see a plan of government adopted with­ out it (see notes 15 and 30). Dane in this sense and the first state was yet to enter the Union not only rounded out Monroe's plan but also carried from the Northwest. Finally, the Ordinance out his design when, in the report of July 11, 1787, he added the sections enumerating the positive rights of 1787 made statehood easier than the Or­ of settlers, reintroduced the restrictive clauses from dinance of 1784 had in that the new plan Jefferson's Ordinance, and incorporated Monroe's required only a simple legislative majority scheme for dividing the Northwest. Certainly, re­ gardless of whose idea it was, Dane's inclusion of the in Congress for admission, whereas the old guarantee of civil liberties was significant, not only one required the consent of two-thirds of the because it gave balance to the Ordinance of 1787. states in the Union at the time a new state The question of whether or not Article 6 of the petitioned for admission.^^ compact, the slavery amendment, was part of a North- South compromise over the statehood article is un­ In its final meeting, the committee expand­ clear. Dane claimed to have proposed such an ed and added to the compact articles of the amendment on July 11, but he did not include it in the bill submitted on the 13th. It may be that by the 13th enough northerners realized the negative ramifications (from their viewpoint) of the state­ ^'Lynd, "Compromise of 1787," 242; Historical hood deal already made and, with those stalwarts Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to who had always wanted its inclusion, threatened to 1957 (Washington, D.C., 1960), 13, 756. withhold their approval of the plan unless the pro-

310 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787 new law both simplified and elaborated ele­ systematized them, and institutionalized them ments of the earlier one. It simplified Jeffer­ in his draft Ordinance. The American colonies son's plan by eliminating his third stage. passed through three stages of political devel­ Now a colony was to become a state at the opment before the Revolution which roughly same time that it adopted a permanent state but distinctly parallel the three stages of the constitution. Part of Jefferson's second and Ordinance. During the seventeenth century all of his third stage were to be covered by the colonies passed through a stage of strong the elongated second stage of the Ordinance executive control which can be equated with of 1787. The new second stage also developed the first stage of the Ordinance. The first ideas implicit in the Ordinance of 1784 by two-thirds of the eighteenth century was a detailing the structure and operation of the period of executive eclipse and of the real temporary representative government. In emergence of representative government au­ this way the new plan furnished a precise thorized in the Ordinance's second stage. definition of republicanism upon which regu­ After 1763 the colonies moved into a period lar state governments were to be built. But of rebellion leading to independence. The the most important change in the new law Ordinance sought to avoid rebellion by pro­ lay in the complete revision and elaboration viding for quasi-independence through state­ of Jefferson's first stage. It is here that the hood as the third stage. In this light, the Ordinance of 1787 has been subjected to the Ordinance cannot be viewed as innovative most severe criticism, but it was also here in any basic sense, even in the provision for that Jefferson's plan was most deficient, and statehood. On the contrary, it was more a strong authority was deemed crucial to authoritarian. In the first stage it did not assure the maintenance of order and the afford even the most meager elements of execution of national policies in the territory. popular government to be found in colonies The Ordinance of 1787 provided for exter­ during the seventeenth century. And, in the nal direction in the person of the governor, second stage the Ordinance did not simply who was intended to act as a stabilizer revert to the second British stage of represen­ throughout the colonial period but principally tative governments with ineffective executives. during the first stage. Jefferson's plan did It incorporated all the changes made in the not explicitly provide for continuous congres­ British system after 1763 to strengthen the sional direction during any stage of develop­ governor's office. The British found it to be ment. disastrous to try to do this after representa­ tive government was firmly established. Rea­ The Ordinance of 1787 was also more in lizing this, Monroe may have considered a tune with the British colonial experience than strong governor from the beginning of rep­ was Jefferson's. One can assume Monroe was resentative government necessary both to get familiar with the general history of the pre- the people in harness and to prevent rebel­ Revolutionary period and argue that in re­ lions before statehood.^^ viewing it in his mind he extracted what he considered to be the essential elements in To summarize, Monroe designed a rela­ the evolution of British colonial government. tively precise, operative system of colonial government to implement Jefferson's gen­ eral principles by returning to the experience of the Old Empire. In adding a positive bill of rights, Dane supplied a valuable but per­ hibition of slavery were added. Together they may have had the power to force its inclusion. See Bur­ haps unnecessary counterweight to the ap­ nett (ed.). Letters, 8:622; Lynd, "Compromise of parently rigid governmental forms and po- 1787," 246-248. In the letter to Rufus King, July 16, 1787, (Burnett [ed.]. Letters, 8:622), Dane, however, not only said he thought the population requirement was too small but that it was not very important. At the same time he expressed some sur­ prise that the slavery amendment had been adopted without opposition. He leaves the impression that any deal involving slavery and statehood made on '^ See Jack P. Greene, The Quest for Power: The the 13th, did not include him and was not evident Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal to him, but, then, Dane is not very reliable. Colonies, 1689-1776 (Chapel Hill, 1963), 3-4.

311 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 tentially stifling congressional controls.^^ He ers cited in the Ordinance. This was remark­ also gave the Ordinance greater clarity as he able only in its enthusiasm, for the idea of rewrote and rearranged parts of Monroe's requiring property qualifications had been plan, but as he completed his work he un­ in Monroe's first report. Since Monroe had leashed his political conservatism, prescrib­ required voters and representatives to own ing property qualifications for all office hold- land in the territory, logic must have led Dane to complete the job.^^

TN MARCH, 1830, following the Webster- ^ See Essex Institute Historical Collections (Salem, -*- Hayne debates, Nathan Dane wrote Daniel Massachusetts, 1888), XXV: 196-200. A vainglorious egotist, Dane denied, yet tacitly admitted, that Jef­ Webster to explain the origins of the Ordi­ ferson had formulated the ideas upon which the nance of 1787. The law, he contended, was Ordinance of 1787 was based when he noted that clearly the work of a Massachusetts lawyer, the Ordinance of 1784 was "A mere incipient plan, in no manner matured for practice." Ibid., XXV: meaning himself. He said he had written the 196. Arthur Butler Hulbert (ed.). The Records of the important parts of the plan and that it owed Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company (2 vols.. nothing to the ideas of Jefferson or anyone Marietta, Ohio, 1917-1918), I:xciii-xciv, called the Northwest Ordinance "a cumulative document" but, else. Significantly, he dismissed the govern­ at the same time, tried to credit the whole of the mental articles of the Ordinance as irrele­ Ordinance to New Englanders, particularly to Dane and Cutler. On the other hand, he contended that vant.^^ He argued, as other Congressmen may the Ohio Company was not interested in the Ordi­ have in the 1780's, that in the history of a nance of 1787, and noted the significant lack of nation brief periods of colonialism were in­ mention of it in the Ohio Company contract. The Company was only interested in land, Hulbert main­ consequential. Only things that were perma­ tained, and ignored the existence of the Ordinance— nent mattered and, in Dane's eyes, in the there is only one insignificant reference to it in all Ordinance these were the conveyance article the Company records—presumably because it was wholly uninterested in government (I:xcv-xcvi). Hul­ he wrote and those parts of the compact ar­ bert said that the Company wanted a positive bill of ticles he claimed to have written. He thought rights in the plan of government, but he offered almost any form of government would suffice neither reasons nor evidence. He also asserted that there had been a consensus favoring the kind of temporarily, if at the same time appropriate law adopted in 1787 at least as early as 1784, and machinery were provided to guarantee basic again offered no evidence (I:xciii-xciv). Whether this was so or not, it is clear that by the time property rights and civil liberties. For this Cutler arrived in New York in 1787 there was noth­ reason, in the 1780's as in the 1830's, Dane ing really new to be offered. At the very most, he and others may not have considered it neces­ can be given credit for having provided part of the bill of rights and for having helped to lower sary to develop a more satisfactory or demo­ the population requirement for new states and to cratic system of colonial government for the change Councillors' terms to five years. All of West, even though it was silly to suppose these were positive, or liberalizing, changes, and Cutler did not claim to be responsible for any of that colonial institutions of government would them. Consequently, the all too common and per­ not shape those of the states. sistent interpretation of the origins of the Ordi­ nance of 1787 (see, for example, Merrill Jensen, Monroe seems to have been well aware of The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781-1789 [New York, the fundamental relationship between colonial 1958], 354, 358; Theodore C. Pease, "The Ordi­ and state institutions and Jefferson must at nance of 1787," in the Mississippi Valley Historical least have sensed it. Whatever the case, if Review, XXV:167-180 [September, 1938]; John Bach McMaster, A History of the People of the United native Americans from the east were going States [8 vols.. New York, 1914], 1:511-512), that to settle the Northwest, as Jefferson some­ conspiratorial land speculators were behind the writ­ times anticipated, the Ordinance of 1784 ing of the Ordinance of 1787 and that the Ohio Company representatives forced Congress to draft should have been adequate. After the in­ the governmental articles the way it did to serve tellectual and physical upheavals and the as a mere adjunct to their land grab, should be dis­ carded. Interpretations similar to the one offered constitution writing of the preceding decade. here are not new. See Burnett, Congress, 598-686 passim, 711; and Philbrick, Laws of Illinois, ccxl. Philbrick bluntly states that there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that the Ohio Com­ pany influenced the writing of any part of the "' The property requirements for federal officials Ordinance of 1787. That does not mean he likes it. (see note 27) were universally ignored. See note 37. ""Essex Institute Historical Collections, XXV:196- 200. See note 34.

312 EBLEN: ORDINANCE OF 1787

Anglo-Americans did not need the more elab­ ment such as the Ordinance pretended to be, orate Ordinance of 1787 to instruct them in Dane explained in detail how real and per­ their basic rights or in how to set up a re­ sonal properties were transferred and inherit­ publican government. Westerners might de­ ed in the United States legal system. Though mand written guarantees and Congress might Dane modestly boasted that this article was respond almost automatically by writing them the first truly republican inheritance law into law, but, written or not, few Anglo-Ameri­ in history, its inclusion in the Ordinance cans going to the frontier were likely to be­ could be justified only on the assumption lieve that their rights and institutions did that western settlers would import ideas or not accompany them. If, on the other hand. institutions incompatible with Anglo-Ameri­ Congress expected the continued settlement can practices and unacceptable to easterners, of the Northwest by French-Canadians and which should be prevented from taking root. other aliens unfamiliar with American politi­ Indeed, Dane was pessimistic about the fu­ cal and legal institutions, Jefferson's Ordi­ ture of the West. The Northwest, he asserted, nance would clearly have seemed inadequate— would be divided into three districts and only if not a license to anarchy. A more rigid and the eastern one was likely to qualify for state­ centralized system of colonial government as hood within the foreseeable future. He was in the Ordinance of 1787 would have been not confident that American institutions deemed desirable. Through it Congress would would successfully penetrate the western two have sure control over the West during the districts. However, he thought there was period of "apprenticeship" in which fron­ some hope for enough easterners to settle tiersmen thoroughly assimilated republican in the easternmost district to form a majority, institutions—until they reached the level of or a controlling minority. Then, by the time conformity requisite for full partnership in it entered the Union there would be an "equal" the empire. chance of its adopting a system of government These considerations apparently loomed similar to that of the original states and large in the decision to rewrite Jefferson's "Eastern politics."^^ Ordinance and pervaded every stage of the drafting of the Ordinance of 1787. Peti­ tions from the French settlers of the Illinois ^' See, for example, Nathan Dane to Rufus King, Country in the 1780's gave force to argu­ July 16, 1787, in Burnett (ed.). Letters, 8:622. ments that Jefferson's Ordinance needed to be Scattered evidence in other sources supports the redone in greater detail. But, more important, stronger interpretation offered here than would seem warranted by the letter cited. Forty-three years Monroe said in effect that he wrote his gov­ later, in 1830 (see note 36), Dane contended that ernmental articles specifically for the gov­ since 1784 he and other northeasterners had been preparing the way for the New England settlement ernment of such "foreigners" and to initiate they anticipated in the Northwest Territory—a spe­ them into the mysteries of republicanism. cious bit of hindsight. Significant northeastern or In the latter sense, the Ordinance of 1787 New England settlement in the Northwest probably was not anticipated much before the organization of was intended to teach non-English westerners the Ohio Company and Reverend Cutler's arrival what constituted a republican government, in Congress. In fact, the formulation of the Ohio Company scheme may have been very important how it was to be organized, and how it should precisely because it may have inclined northeastern operate. For Monroe, Dane, and others who Congressmen more favorably toward Monroe's plan seemed to take it for granted that non-English of government by offering the pleasing prospect that new western states so settled might be sympathetical­ settlers would predominate in the West, then ly disposed to New England designs in Congress. the Northwest Ordinance satisfied the need Monroe's views on the future of western settle­ unmet in the Ordinance of 1784 for concrete ment are not altogether explicit, but see his inter­ changes with Jefferson cited in note 15. See also congressional supervision and a carefully Madison to Jefferson, April 23, 1787, in Burnett worked out, clearly defined system of co­ (ed.). Letters, 8:588-589; R. H. Lee to Wm [?] lonial administration. Lee, July 30, 1787, in ibid., 8:629-630; R. H. Lee to Washington, July 15, 1787, in ibid., 8:620; Ed­ Similarly, through the article on the de­ ward Carrington to Jefferson, October 23, 1787, in ibid., 8:660; John Jay to Jefferson, April 24, 1787, scent and conveyance of property, which, as in Boyd (ed.), Jefferson Papers, 11:314; Jefferson a law, did not belong in a fundamental docu­ to Madison, June 20, 1787, in ibid., 11:481; Jay to

313 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Dane and Monroe, two of the principal cided the Ordinance of 1784 should be re­ architects of the Ordinance of 1787, were sup­ drawn. In fairness, then, politically contro­ posedly well versed in western problems. They versial or deceitful motives cannot be attrib­ represented different northern and southern uted to these men. Their contributions to the perspectives, but they firmly agreed that it Ordinance of 1787 did not emanate foremost would be difficult to transplant republican from a desire either to further or frustrate institutions in the hinterland of the empire whatever democratic tendencies there were and that the success of any attempt was un­ on the frontier, but simply out of the felt certain at best. Add to this their expectation, need to devise a viable system of colonial and Jefferson's, that settlement was going government for the empire in the West. In to be slow and statehood for even the eastern­ more general terms, the governmental articles most part of the Northwest would be long in may be called conservative or reactionary coming, and it is small wonder all three de- only if one is willing to use the same label to describe all American leaders during the mid-1780's. The Ordinance can hardly be considered the work of a band of conspira­ tors since everyone seems to have agreed on Jefferson, July 24, 1787, in ibid., 11:618-619; and Carter (ed.). Territorial Papers, II:39-40n. its basic content. This is not meant to sug­ Philbrick, Laws of Illinois, cccclviii, concludes that gest that there were no compromises between the Ordinance was "a product of forthright political rather fluid factions in Congress or that some reactionaries, determined to control an assumedly untrustworthy (and potentially revolutionary and of them were unimportant, but it is meant to traitorous) population. ... Its framers were logical emphasize the essentially apolitical nature of —and, in view of their attitudes toward frontier society, not hypocritical." the governmental provisions. The continuity The idea that general provisions in organic acts and consensus of thought are obvious, yet were insufficient for new citizens was explicitly they have been missed in the past because expressed in reference to continental areas at least until 1822. In that year. Representative John Rhea the history of the Ordinance has been over- of Tennessee successfully argued against an amend­ dramatized and its political significance has ment to the Florida bill which would have substi­ been obscured by irrelevancies. In light of tuted a simple statement that Florida laws must con­ form to the Constitution for a detailed list of the aura of intrigue that has surrounded the United States statutes applicable to the territory. Ordinance, it is thus surprising to see how its He contended that the new citizens of the former history is apparently nothing more or less Spanish colony would not understand the compact language, that restrictions and rights had to be than that of a rather ordinary piece of non- spelled out in some detail. See Carter (ed.). Terri­ controversial legislation. torial Papers, XXIL398.

314 ^,.,(C -rM»eiLLTHAT (f^fvi£^.r(3MC^ii^t-AL-tPeT(iv-i<5- JVTPT I, I /ALWAV5 SAID l,i>t^ HAOA ~^ H^Au? (pi"-" Hifvi. IT'S JUS 1 5a

'^'"'^ • OXP5 M^IVA«MT5 HIS

POLITICAL /^f?6U(vier^"r

;.J1,I I'M... Pij,i;4»n« Co. (Nf«- ^•o.^ \VO,M) IO2R. 'i.^^^^'/

Another of H. T. Webster's timeless cartoons from the Society's collection of more than 5,000 original drawings. For a full description of the Webster Collection see the Winter, 1967-1968 issue.

315 THE IWW AND THE QUESTION OF VIOLENCE

By JOSEPH R. CONLIN

We don't want to fight anybody, what we want is more pork chops. —Mesabi Range Wobbly

O ALT LAKE CITY newspaper readers were While the IWW has disintegrated, its re­ ^ startled by a remarkable headline on De­ putation for violence has survived in Ameri­ cember 31, 1916. "Plan is Made to Poison can scholarly writings. John Graham Brooks' Community with Strychnine," it read. The contemporary study reflected his era's hostil­ article which followed began in a confusing ity toward the Wobblies. While it did not manner, with what appeared to be instructions harp on the subject, his book assumed that on how to accomplish the foul deed: "Dis­ violence was a part of the IWW program.- solve one eight-ounce bottle of strychnine sul­ Carlton Parker, another contemporary student phate in one half pint of boiling water. One of the movement, did not emphasize violence or two men should prepare the poison for the as a peculiarly Wobbly trait, but concluded entire community." Its readership by then that the organization was guilty of at least "a doubtlessly intrigued, the newspaper dispelled few hop kiln burnings."^ the mystery: "This is no I.W.W. plot but part The most damning scholarly indictment was of the instructions issued by agricultural agent Samuel P. Orth's Armies of Labor, which was of Salt Lake City, Herbert J. Webb, for de­ published in the wake of the great Red Scare stroying sparrows."^ and reflected the temperament of the time. Whether or not the readers of the item had Orth stated unequivocally that the IWW dam­ a hearty chuckle over the prank, the allusion to aged machinery and tampered with railroad the Industrial Workers of the World was not lost on them. During its heyday before and for a decade after World War I, the IWW had ' Salt Lake Telegram, December 31, 1916. a most unsavory reputation for violence. In ''John Graham Brooks, American Syndicalism: The the popular eye, the IWW was a conspiracy of I.W.W. (New York, 1913), e.g. 159. ''Carlton Parker, The Casual Laborer and Other desperate villains who set fire to wheat fields, Essays (New York, 1920), 106-108. Many of the drove spikes into sawmill-bound logs, derailed subsequent historians' references to the IWW are trains, destroyed industrial machinery, and taken from Virgil Vogel's excellently researched but unfortunately unpublished compendium, "The His­ killed policemen. So there was nothing pre­ torians and the I.W.W.," Typescript, University of posterous in the suggestion that plans to poi­ Chicago, June 8, 1955. I am grateful to Mr. Vogel for permitting me to examine the manuscript, which de­ son a "community" might be on the Wobbly scribes many historians' views of the Wobblies which agenda as well. I might have otherwise missed.

316 CONLIN: THE IWW switches. He wrote of the bomb scare of May brawl for its own sake." Louis Adamic, him­ and June, 1919, that it "was evidently the re­ self generally sympathetic to the Wobblies, sult of centralized planning and [was] exe­ absolved them of the use of violence to per­ cuted by members of the I.W.W., aided very son in all instances except during a strike at considerably by foreign Bolshevists." Orth McKee's Rocks, Pennsylvania, in 1909. But also singled out unspecified "lumbermill ex­ Adamic does attribute the violent sabotage plosions" in Aberdeen, South Dakota, as the of property to the union. H. Wayne Morgan work of the IWW.-* writes of the IWW's "increasing emphasis on Subsequent historians have lacked Orth's violence" and the union's turn "from demo­ passion but many have not materially modi­ cratic methods and the ballot to industrial fied his picture of a violent IWW. Harold violence."® U. Faulkner refers in passing to "violent meth­ According to Ralph Chaplin, a former Wob­ ods." Foster Rhea Dulles states that the union bly leader who became quite conservative dur- "appeared to welcome violence, enjoying a

" Harold U. Faulkner, American Economic History * Samuel P. Orth, The Armies of Labor (New (New York, 1954), 460-461; Foster Rhea Dulles, Haven, 1921), 218. Virgil Vogel comments on the Labor in America: A History (New York, 1955) latter statement that there were never any lumbermills 215; Louis Adamic, Dynamite: The Story of Class in Aberdeen, South Dakota, for the simple reason Violence in America (New York, 1931), 175, 375; that there were never any trees of note there. "The H. Wayne Morgan, Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for Historians and the I.W.W.," 23. President (Syracuse, 1962), 88.

Cdhn. M.li it The IWW's undeserved reputation for violence stems partially from confronta­ tions such as this one between strikers and the Massachusetts militia in Lawrence in 1912.

317 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

man and Philip Taft, Mary Dutton Savage, and a large number of historians who do not treat the subject at all in connection with their descriptions of the Wobblies. In his brilliant study of government suppression of radicals, William Preston observes that "the I.W.W. suggested that force and violence would meet force and violence," but his book also mar­ shals considerable evidence that the Wobblies did not transgress so much as they were trans­ gressed against.'^ These are impressive witnesses, but a quick glance at some American history textbooks or the random mention of the IWW in con­ versation even with historians reveals that their viewpoint has not prevailed. David Sa- ville Muzzey, in a once-popular text, stated outright that the IWW approved "terrorism, mass strikes, sabotage (the crippling of ma­ chines), the destruction of property." Louis Chaplin, Wobbly M. Hacker and Helene S. Zahler wrote that Ralph Chaplin at the age of twenty-two, in 1909. "if damage to machinery and property would serve their purpose," the IWW was willing to effect it.^ ing his later years, "Historians using the hy­ Recent textbooks for both "survey" courses sterical newspaper headlines of the day as and courses in twentieth-century American source material have depicted [the IWW's] history generally avoid a judgment but in­ stormy career in colors blacker than the cline in the same direction. John D. Hicks re­ hinges of hell. Erudite professors, quoting fers to the IWW's "long career of violence" one another as 'authorities,' label it as a con­ and the union's "warlike methods." A. S. Link spiracy of alien arsonists and dynamiters, the has the IWW "careening from one bloody con­ purpose of which was to place all law-abiding flict to another" and most other accounts as­ citizens at the mercy of the mob."^ sume that violence and sabotage were Wobbly In fact, several historians have disagreed with that depiction. Paul F. Brissenden, John S. Gambs, and Eldridge F. Dowell, the authors of the best-researched early books on the IWW, generally agree that the IWW neither 'Paul F. Brissenden, The I.W.W.: A Study of advocated nor practiced violence except in American Syndicalism (New York, 1919) ; John S. Gambs, The Decline of the I.W.W. (New York, self-defense and that the violence popularly as­ 1932) ; Eldridge F. Dowell, A History of Criminal sociated with Wobbly strikes was usually ini­ Syndicalism Legislation in the United States (Balti­ more, 1939) ; Selig Perlman and Philip Taft in John tiated by employers, police, or militia. An Commons et al. History of Labor in the United States analyst of the historiography of the IWW con­ (New York, 1935), IV:263-265; Marion D. Savage, curs, writing that the Wobblies "were not op­ Industrial Unionism in America (New York, 1922), 154; Vogel, "The Historians and the I.W.W." 40-41; posed to violence in principle, especially in William Preston, Jr., Aliens and Dissenters: Federal self-defense, but . . . for practical and strate­ Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933 (Cambridge, gic reasons they avoided it wherever possible." 1963), 41, passim. * David S. Muzzey, A History of Our Country (Bos­ Others who appear to agree include Selig Perl- ton, 1946), 595; Louis M. Hacker, The United States in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1962), 80; see also Louis M. Hacker and Benjamin B. Kendrick, The United States Since 1865 (New York, 1934), 723; Frederick L. Paxson, Recent History of the United States (Boston, 1929), 456; Arthur M. Schle- ' Ralph Chaplin, "Why I Wrote Solidarity Forever, singer. Political and Social Growth of the American in The American West, V:20 (January, 1968). People (New York, 1941), 345.

318 CONLIN: THE IWW

bywords.^ More important, perhaps, is the more prone to the use of violence than were IWW's enduring symbolism outside historical the members of the American Federation of writing as a movement dedicated to violent Labor or any other conservative labor union. methods. Present-day revolutionary groups The IWW rejected violence on grounds of which call for retaliatory violence cite the both theory and expediency. Thus, as early IWW as a forebear; their sympathetic critics as 1907 (the union was founded in 1905), point to the IWW's ruination as the inevit­ the official organ stated that while violence able result of such tactics. The conversational "is the basis of every political state in exist­ mention of the Wobblies inevitably elicits ence, [it] has no place in the foundation or anecdotes dealing with spherical black bombs superstructure of this organization."^" Wob­ or Pinkerton guards impaled on meathooks. blies visualized their union as the governing Newspaper photographs of picketline fist- body of the coming commonwealth which was fights are captioned: "Return of the I.W. emerging as industrialism matured — "build­ W.'s." ing the new society within the shell of the old" as the Wobblies phrased it. Certainly rr\mS REPUTATION is an historical dis- there could be no place for violence in such -*- tortion of the worst sort, for the fact is an organization. A Wobbly at Lawrence, Mas­ not merely a matter of shifted emphasis but sachusetts, the scene of the IWW's greatest almost the diametrical contrary. During the triumph as a union, explained that violence half-decade or so preceding World War I, was "reactionary and out of date." The union's when the IWW was a force to be reckoned with General Executive Board in 1920 was more in American industrial relations, its central explicit. No principle could ever be settled by office in Chicago was dominated by the atti­ force, the Board argued, and what was worse, tudes of the union's Eastern or "industrial "Such methods destroy the constructive im­ unionist" wing. This leadership, headed by pulse which it is the purpose of this organiza­ the redoubtable William D. "Big Bill" Hay­ tion to foster and develop in order that the wood, did not envision or, in fact, head a vio­ workers may fit themselves to assume their lent organization. In fact, the Haywood IWW place in the new society."^' unequivocally rejected violence and often act­ The IWW also rejected violence because the ed as a positive force for peace in the indus­ nature of the revolution they envisioned sim­ trial disputes in which it took part; the IWW ply did not require it. To the IWW, the new was nonviolent almost to a point of principle. society was to be accomplished not by an elec­ Even the more loosely-organized Western toral victory nor by taking to the barricades wing, centering in the mining towns, lumber but by a general strike which would para­ camps, and argicultural belts — while circum­ lyze the economy and force the employing stantial evidence attributes certain depreda­ class to hand over peacefully the means of tions to individual members — was rarely vio­ production. Wobblies were nearly mystical lent as an organization and was censured by when they spoke of the power of the work­ the central office when it hinted otherwise. ers who "folded their arms." And certainly the Western Wobblies were no Strikes for immediate gains were also re­ hearsals for the eventual general strike and therefore also need not be violent. Violence was "useless," a Lawrence Wobbly said, "as " John D. Hicks, The American Nation (Boston, we have only to quit work and the whole 1941), 63; John M. Blum et al. The National Experi­ ence (New York, 1963), 575; T. Harry Williams, Richard N. Current, and Frank Friedel, A History of the United States (New York, 1966), II: 290-292. The best "survey" text account of the Wobblies is Samuel E. Morison and Henry S. Commager's Growth of the ^"Industrial Union Bulletin, May 11, 1907. American Republic (New York, 1942) which, curi­ "^ Boston Evening Transcript, February 10, 1912; ously, does not spell the IWW's name correctly, call­ 1920 statement quoted in (Jambs, Decline of the ing the Wobblies, the "International Workers of the I.W.W., 223-225; other Wobbly resolutions to the World." The best "twentieth century" text account is same effect may be found in Solidarity, May 22, 1920, David S. Shannon's United States in the Twentieth June 9 and September 15, 1923; Defense News Bulle­ Century (Chicago, 1963), 85-86. tin, May 4, 1919.

319 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

strikers at Lawrence to "stay in your houses; don't let the police or the soldiers provoke you into a fight." He realized that, as the journalist Robert Bruyere wrote in 1918, vio­ lence invariably started with and favored the best prepared, and the employers and police were the best prepared.'* Moreover, Haywood and some other Wob­ blies had an inarticulated conception of the now-familiar idea that nonviolence often frus­ trated the adversary into the use of violence, and the public's comparison of peaceful work­ ers with violent employers would channel the tide of public opinion to the workers' cause. This was exactly what happened at Lawrence and at Spokane, Washington, and the experi­ ence confirmed Wobblies in their policy. In both cities the brutality of the police and the resultant public protest were of major im­ portance in accounting for the IWW's vic­ tories. At Paterson, New Jersey, site of a Society's Iconographic Collection major strike in 1913, Haywood made his posi­ According to the Associated Press caption for this tion clear when he shouted to a mass meeting picture of William D. Haywood, president of the of workers that their power rested in their IWW, "It is alleged that I.W.W. organizers have in­ folded arms. "You have killed the mills; you timated workers to quit work in all lines of work." have stopped production; you have broken capitalist machinery is at a standstill."'^ Big off profits. Any other violence you may com­ Bill Haywood and other Wobbly leaders mit is less than this, and it will only react seemed never to tire of telling the workers upon yourselves."'" that they had only to remain away from work Other Wobblies placed equal emphasis on in order to win their disputes. Ralph Chaplin, the efficacy of positive nonviolence. When once second only to Haywood in the Wobbly Joe Ettor, the union's general organizer, ar­ organization, later recalled that he had re­ rived in Lawrence to take command of the jected violence as a viable tool before 1913. strike in early 1912, he cautioned, "By all "Squirrel guns," he concluded, would be of means make this strike as peaceful as possible. little help to auto workers in establishing a In the last analysis, all the blood spilled will union and that, after all, was the IWW's be your blood. And if any blood is spilled, goal.'^ it will be on the hands of the millowners, for In addition to their theoretical rejection of they will be responsible for it.""' violence, the Eastern Wobblies eschewed its Critics of the Wobblies, both contemporary use on grounds of expediency. Unarmed work­ and subsequent, have often singled out Wil­ ers could not hope to match force with wealthy liam D. Haywood as the spirit of violence iti employers, armed police, and militia. The the IWW, pointing to his past as a leader of General Executive Board's white paper on the violent Western Federation of Miners and violence in 1920 stated that "history shows his trial for the murder of former Idaho sov- that violence breeds official government vio­ lence and the workers lose their cause immed­ " Robert Bruyere, "The I.W.W.," in Harper's Week­ iately." William D. Haywood cautioned the ly (July, 1918), 253. ^'The Survey, XXVII:205 (March 30, 1912) ; "Pro­ gram of the Paterson Pageant," June 7, 1913, in the Labadie Collection, University of Michigan Library, "" Boston Evening Transcript, February 10, 1912. Ann Arbor. " Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly: The Rough and Tumble ^^ Quoted in Justus Ebert, The Trial of a New Story of An American Radical (Chicago, 1948), 146. Society (Cleveland, n.d. [1913?]), 49.

320 CONLIN: THE IWW ernor, Frank Steunenberg. Although it is dif­ right to organize. All were characterized by ficult to tell so from some histories, Haywood nearly complete nonviolence on the part of was acquitted of the Steunenberg murder, and the Wobblies and sometimes vicious brutali­ the available evidence suggests that Haywood's ties on the part of authorities and mobs of citi­ violent past in the WFM disillusioned him with zens.'^ The Wobblies' adherence to peaceful the utility of violence rather than confirmed demonstration and civil disobedience could him in the use of it. The Southern Wobbly have served as a model for Gandhi and Martin leader, Covington Hall, told of a conversa­ Luther King. tion with Haywood after Big Bill had arrived In McKee's Rocks, where the workers at the from delivering a speech in Grabow, Louisia­ Pressed Steel Car Works struck in 1909, the na, a lumber mill town. The news arrived of IWW actively served as a pacifying force. The a riot in Grabow and Haywood was greatly strike had been called spontaneously and its disturbed. "I don't know why something like early stages were marred by considerable vio­ that is always following me around the coun­ lence on both sides; several strikers and at try," Haywood said. Hall observed that Hay­ least one Pennsylvania state constable were wood seemed nervous for the rest of the day killed. According to the Nation, the strikers and left abruptly after his last lecture.'^ had 3,000 men under arms, probably an exag­ Haywood continued to speak of revolution geration but indicative of the temper of the during his Wobbly period, of course, but it town.^" When the IWW entered the strike the was a bloodless revolution to which he re­ violence immediately ceased. An apocryphal ferred. "The world is turning against war," tale attributes the change to a Wobbly dictum he said not too presciently in 1913. "People that for every striker killed a policeman would are sickened at the thought. Even labor wars be killed, but there is no evidence for the story. of the old type are passing. I should never In fact, the IWW introduced its policy of no think of conducting a strike in the old way. violence and the authorities conformed. Sev­ There will never be another Coeur D'Alenes, eral neutral observers said that they had another Cripple Creek [WFM strikes which never seen less violence in such a large strike.^' more closely resembled small wars than indus­ At Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912, the trial disputes]. I for one, have turned my situation was similar. The strike was sponta­ back on violence. It wins nothing. When we neous, in response to an unannounced wage strike now, we strike with our hands in our cut in January. As the various spinning and pockets. We have a new kind of violence — weaving shops walked out independently, the havoc we raise with money by laying threads were cut, windows smashed, and down our tools. Our strength lies in the over­ power belts slashed in order to prevent non- whelming power of our numbers."'* strikers from working.^^ On another occasion violence erupted when police turned firehoses O MUCH for advocacy. In practice the on a group of pickets and they retaliated by S IWW was consistent, spurning the use of throwing ice at the police. But that was all violence in its strikes and sometimes function­ before the IWW took charge of the strike! ing as a positive force for peace in labor dis­ Summoned by the tiny Franco-Belgian Wob­ putes. While they were not directly concerned bly local in the town, organizer Joseph Ettor with wages, hours, or conditions, the free immediately warned the workers that they speech fights which the IWW waged between 1909 and 1911 at Missoula, Montana; Fresno and San Diego, California; Spokane; Aber­ deen; and Kansas City were industrial dis­ ^'' The best narrative account of the free speech putes in that they were directed at the IWW's fights is Philip S. Foner, The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917, (History of the Labor Move­ ment of the United States, Vol. IV, New York, 1965), 172-214. '"The Nation (August 26, 1909). " Covington Hall, "Labor Struggles in the Deep '^ Paul Kellog, "The McKee's Rocks Strike," in The South," Typescript, copy in Labor History Archives, Survey (August 7, 1909), 664. Wayne State University, 156. ^Fred Beal, Proletarian Journey: New England, ^The World's Work, XXVI:417 (1913). Gastonia, Moscow (New York, 1937), 40-41.

321 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 must shun violent tactics and observe abso­ lute nonviolence. One incident seemed to give the lie to Ettor's public policy. Shortly after he arrived, Lawrence police made several raids including one at a shoemaker's shop next door to a house where Ettor received his mail. They found several caches of dynamite. The millowners and some newspapers were quick to blame the IWW, but the Wobblies denied any knowledge of the explosives. They quietly launched their own investigation when a rumor spread that the Boston Hearst paper was already on sale in Lawrence with the news of the discovery before the police had actually made the raid. It was then revealed that the dynamite had been wrapped in old copies of a trade magazine, the Undertaker's Journal, from one copy of which the sub­ scriber's name had been imperfectly removed. He was John J. Breen, who had been county coroner, and was at the time of the strike a Cahn, Mill Town member of the Lawrence School Board. After Urbano Di Prato stands in the doorway of his shoe­ Breen's arrest it developed that William Wood, maker's shop in Lawrence in which a cache of dyna­ principal owner of the American Woolens mite was planted and blamed on the strikers. Company, Lawrence's largest mill, had recent­ ly made an unexplained payment of money to minister remembered five years later that the Breen. Wood was not molested and Breen was IWW leaders were "men of beautiful counte­ fined $500 — mild punishment the Wobblies nance," perhaps an overstatement. They be­ thought, but they were gratified to be cleared lieved in "the beautiful philosophy of non- of the charge.^^ resistance," he wrote.^'' On another occasion Ettor acted positively While Lawrence provides the best example to avoid provocation by a company of militia­ of IWW nonviolence in action, neutral observ­ ers testified to the same fact in innumerable men. On January 28, 1912, he was leading a instances. A woman in Butte, Montana, was protest march through the retail business dis­ surprised at the tenacity with which the Wob­ trict when a group of militia suddenly blocked blies restrained from responding in kind to the strikers' path. Thinking quickly, Ettor led violent provocations.^^ Several government the group up a side street and rapidly disband­ prosecutors and even agents of the Bureau of ed them. Investigation agreed.^'' Another woman testi­ Hardly did the IWW bring violence into the fied in court that she had heard speeches by all city, a reporter wrote at the time; the IWW the major Wobbly agitators in the Pacific stemmed it in the face of the workers' frus­ Northwest including "Red" Doran, James tration, the employers' provocations, and the Rowan, James P. Thompson, and Elizabeth militia's irresponsibility. A local Protestant

"" Mary K. O'SuUivan, "Labor War at Lawrence," in The Survey, XXVni:73 (April 6, 1912) ; New '"William D. Haywood, Bill Haywood's Book: The York Times, October 15, 1917. Autobiography of William D. Haywood (New York, '^ Fanny Bixby Spencer, to Nicholas Steelinck, 1929), 252; Beal, Proletarian Journey, 49; Lawrence August 11, 1920, in the Steelinck Collection, Labor Sun, May 14-17, 1912; Solidarity, June 22, 1912; History Archives, Wayne State University. Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, ^Preston, Aliens and Dissenters, 104; U.S. Attor­ Massachusetts, 62nd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate ney Clay Allen to the Attorney General, July 6, 1917, Document No. 870, p. 39; Foner, The I.W.W., 334; in the Department of Justice File 186701-49-6; Robert Brissenden, The I.W.W., 289; G. D. H. Cole, The Bruyere, "The I.W.W.," in Harpers Weekly (July, World of Labour, 149. 1918), 254.

322 CONLIN: THE IWW

Gurley Flynn, and had never heard any of them "advocate or teach crime. They are strict­ ly opposed to violence."^'^ A police chief in Colorado reported that an IWW meeting which he attended discussed the question of what they should do if they were attacked by a mob near­ by. Much to the sheriff's surprise, the Wob­ blies decided that if the mob came, they would leave rather than promote violence.^^ A Los Angeles police captain wrote that he was ashamed to have done the "dirty work" of the employers in attempting to provoke the Wob­ blies to violence. "These Wobblies are bet­ ter men then we are," he said. "They show better self control."^" William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor un­ der Woodrow Wilson, ruled that the constitu­ tion of the IWW did not show that the union advocated violence or force.^" The American Civil Liberties Union, which defended the Wobblies indicted under the Sedition Act of 1918, stated that "the common charge of violence to achieve the organization's purpose has not been proved in a single trial." Not Cahn. Mill Town a single fact "has been proved against the Elizabeth Gurley Flynn speaking to strikers at Lawrence. organization which could not be proved against any aggressive A F of L Union."^' TTOW, THEN, did the IWW get its bloody The Federal Council of Churches, after in­ -•--'- reputation? Primarily it was a reputa­ vestigating the disturbances in the Colorado tion foisted upon the union by its enemies: coal fields in 1927, in which the IWW was the employers it struck; the cities whose anti- involved, marveled at the union's avoidance street-speaking ordinances it defied; AF of L of violence.^^ The Immigration Bureau wrote unionist rivals; anti-unionist politicians; and after a long examination of the IWW that the reformist wing of the Socialist Party .^^ only hints of violence could be found in IWW The IWW's brief age of prosperity was an era writings and concluded that even in regard to when unions were widely suspect in the Unit­ "sabotage," the IWW's meaning was "not alto­ ed States, and the IWW represented the most gether clear or well defined."^^ militant sort of unionism. The most dis­ torted account of Wobbly activities could be widely disseminated and believed in such an atmosphere. As Richard Brazier, a prom­ inent Wobbly, remembered: "The I.W.W., of '" State of Washington v. Pat Cantwell, 119 Wash. 665, No. 16811, "Statement of Facts," 38, quoted in course, never did have a 'good press' and we Donald S. Barnes, "The Ideology of the I.W.W.," were more or less accustomed to being made (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wash­ the whipping boys for something we knew ington, 1962), 2, 158. "" "An Explanation by Ex-Chief of Police Hutchin­ nothing about."'^ son," in the Socialist Party of America Collection, Duke University Library. == Quoted in Gambs, The Decline of the I.W.W., 45. ''"Annual Report: Secretary of Labor of the United "* On this final point, see Joseph R. Conlin, "The States, 1920 (Washington, 1920), 78-79. I.W.W. and the Socialist Party," Science and Society, "^ "Memorandum Regarding the Persecution of the XXXI:22-36 (Winter, 1967). Radical Labor Movement in the United States," (Na­ "= Richard Brazier, "The Great I.W.W. Trial of tional Civil Liberties Bureau, New York, 1919), 4. 1918 in Retrospect," Typescript in the I.W.W. Col­ =" Gambs, Decline of the I.W.W., 151. lection, Labor History Archives, Wayne State Univer­ '^ Preston, Aliens and Dissenters, 101. sity, 4.

323 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

An anti-unionist public's credulity was only one way by which the IWW's reputation was fixed. On various occasions, agents provoca­ teurs were employed by the union's enemies. It is likely that the single speaker, out of hundreds, who advocated violence on the Wob­ blies' open platform at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1913 was hired to do so.''''' Harvey O'Con­ nor recalled an incident in Everett, Washing­ ton, where, when an IWW speaker began to preach violence, he was pulled from the plat­ form by "fellow" Wobblies.^'' Agents provo­ cateurs were widely employed in the western lumbering areas. A reporter for the New York Post wrote that lumber millowners frankly ad­ mitted to him that "the peculiar reputation for violence and lawlessness which has been I:bert, Trial ot a New Societ fixed upon the I.W.W. was largely the work Wobblies Joseph Caruso, Joseph J. Ettor, and of their own ingenious publicity agents."^* Arturo Giovannitti handcuffed together as they await In a case in which the IWW was accused trial for a murder committed during the Lawrence strike. All three were acquitted. of sabotage, an admitted "professional wit­ ness" for the prosecution impeached his own Giovannitti were involved in another sensa­ testimony with so many contradictions that tional murder case in connection with the even the friendly local newspapers were up­ 1912 Lawrence strike but they, too, were ac­ set.^' At a Wobbly trial at Sacramento in 1918, quitted. Over a hundred Wobblies were, of two Wobblies, Elbert Coutts and John Dy- course, convicted of "sedition" during World mond, testified that the California IWW had War I but virtually every subsequent student been engaged in incendiarism since 1912. But, of the affair has interpreted that trial as at as William Preston notes, the two were cocon­ best a shabby affair.'" In fact, as the historian spirators according to their own confession who studied the question most closely con­ and were "by all odds, disreputable wit- cludes, there was absolutely "no case of an "40 I.W.W. saboteur caught practicing sabotage nesses. " or convicted of its practice."''^ The imprisoned The IWW's implication in many trials for Wobblies were more pungent: "The liberals, murder and other violent crimes has served bless their saccharine souls . . . usually pre­ to perpetuate their unsavory reputation. Iron­ face a five line plea for our release with twen­ ically, in virtually every case the IWW was ty lines making clear that they do not under acquitted. William D. Haywood is always re­ any circumstances believe in violence. There membered as the defendant in the famous they sound like intellectual poltroons absolv­ Steunenberg murder case, but the fact that he ing themselves from an imaginary crime."'*^ was acquitted for lack of evidence is widely The IWW was roundly condemned for its ignored. Wobblies Joseph Ettor and Arturo defense of the McNamara brothers who plead-

" The best account of the wartime prosecutions is "" Patrick L. Quintan, "The Paterson Strike and Preston, Aliens and Dissenters. After," in the New Review, 11:29 (January, 1914) ; *- Dowell, Criminal Syndicalism Legislation, 36. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, / Speak My Own Piece: Dowell's conclusion, based on an exhaustive study of Autobiography of the Rebel Girl (New York, 1955), the laws under which the IWW was prosecuted for 148-149. sabotage among other offenses, is convincing. His "'Harvey O'Connor. Revolution in Seattle: A Me­ original work, upon which the book is based, was moir (New York, 1954), 37. a Ph.D. dissertation at Johns Hopkins University, a "'New York Post, February 16, 1918. massive compendium of data running over 1,300 "" State of Washington v. Edward Aspelin and pages. State of Washington v. Alfred Petilla, quoted in *" Harrison George, quoted in The Truth About the Barnes, "Ideology of the LW.W.," 145-146. I.W.W. Prisoners (American Civil Liberties Union, " William Preston, Aliens and Dissenters, 136. New York, April, 1922), 17.

324 CONLIN: THE IWW

ed guilty to bombing the Los Angeles Times throws us upon the scrap heap or abandons us building in 1910, and the brothers' ignominy to the poor house when we are no longer use­ was extended to the Wobblies. However, in ful.'"'^ In another instance, the Industrial their defenses of the McNamaras (who were Worker (the organ of the IWW's Western not Wobblies but Democrats, members of the wing) wrote that some loggers had threatened AF of L, and Roman Catholics) the Wobblies to drive spikes into logs bound for the saw­ were always scrupulous to point out that they mills. "Terrible," the paper commented in did not approve of the act of violence, but mock horror. "No good, honest. Christian, could sympathize with the desperation which gentlemanly logger would do anything like drove the men to their action. Frank Bohn, that. It isn't good for the mill saws."*^ the leading IWW theorist, stated that the Despite the fact that no Wobbly was ever brothers were misguided only in the way in convicted of driving a spike into a log or which John Brown was misguided: they se­ igniting a wheat field, it is reasonable to con­ lected the wrong tactic. "The hearts of the jecture that these statements had their paral­ McNamaras were right. It was their heads lels in practice. The antisocial attitudes of which were in error."** many of the Western Wobblies were similar The Wobbly newspaper. Solidarity, asked: to those of the Western Federation of Miners "Must we weakly apologize for those of our from which they derived and whose violence kind who occasionally strike back under great Big Bill Haywood had rejected. Former Wob­ provocation? The capitalist sowed the wind blies recall that members were sometimes re­ and reaped a little zephyr of a cyclone. . . . cruited involuntarily. (A common tactic was Let the blood be upon the hands of our mas- to require the purchase of a "little red card" ters."45 as a "pass" to ride the freight trains.) It is Finally, the IWW as an organization was quite possible that several waves of fires in susceptible to being tarred as a violent organ­ the California agricultural regions such as that ization owing to the statements of some mem­ around Fresno in 1917 were the work of in­ bers from the union's Western wing. Individ­ dividual Wobbly incendiaries.**' ual Wobblies who were clearly not agents On the other hand, it bears repeating that provocateurs did make violent statements. An despite dozens of prosecutions and the investi­ anonymous Wobbly told John Graham Brooks gative powers of a dozen states, the Bureau that although they refuse "to put the public of Investigation, the Immigration Bureau, and to serious risk, ... we can manipulate the the Justice Department, no Wobbly was ever machinery easy enough — from the engines proved to have committed an act of violence. to the track, we can put big trouble and big Former workers in the Western agricultural re­ expense onto the managers."*^ Appearing be­ gions, well insulated by the statute of limita­ fore the Industrial Relations Commission, tions, recall witnessing no violence of IWW IWW leader Vincent St. John asked, albeit origin. The nearest thing to sabotage recalled rhetorically: "Why should we hesitate about by Carl Keller, currently the IWW's secretary- destroying property? It isn't ours. Instead, treasurer, was the practice of jamming a hay the employer uses it to our disadvantage when­ bailer; it did not damage the machinery but ever he can. Furthermore, he isn't careful merely stalled it temporarily so that the work- about our property, our physical and mental power. He sends us into the mines as children, without a semblance of an education, speeds us up, underpays us, wears out our bodies, and then, without a thought for our well-being. " Quoted in The Survey, XXXII (May 30, 1914). In justice, a contradictory (and more widely ex­ pressed) Wobbly viewpoint on the subject should be cited. When asked if the IWW damaged prop­ erty, a Wobbly replied: "Won't we be taking them over one of these days, and what sense would there •"* Frank Bohn, "The Passing of the McNamaras," be in destroying what is going to belong to us?" in the International Socialist Review, XII:400 (Jan­ Quoted by Robert Bruyere in Harper's Weekly (July, uary, 1912). 1918), 250-257. "•Solidarity, January 4, 1912. '"Industrial Worker, December 26, 1912. *' Quoted in Brooks, American Syndicalism, 141. " Preston, Aliens and Dissenters, 132.

325 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 ers could enjoy an unauthorized rest.^" More­ the statements to the contrary). It is appro­ over, it is ahistorical to blame the IWW for priate to recall the theme of John Millington practices which Western workers had per­ Synge's Playboy of the Western World, that formed long before the IWW was founded and there is a great gap between a gallons story have continued to perform since its demise. and a dirty deed. Fierce posturings are, while unfortunate N BALANCE, the IWW must be charac­ and often ungainly, not sufficient evidence to O terized as a nonviolent union. The rare convict. It was the American Woolens Com­ Wobbly statements advocating violence were pany which planted the dynamite at Law­ aberrations, not the norm. The Industrial rence. It was a Roman Catholic priest who Worker was suspended by the central office maintained that the socialist is "the mad dog for its article on driving spikes into logs.^' of society and should be silenced, if need be Finally, the only evidence which characterized by a bullet." It was an eminent Boston lawyer the IWW as violent was verbal and must be who maintained that the militia at Lawrence viewed in that context. Like all radicals in "should have been instructed to shoot . . . the American history and, perhaps, like all men way Napoleon did it. The strikers should have not in power who would like to be, individual been shot down." And it was a Paterson news­ Wobblies spoke and wrote a great deal and paper which called for new cemeteries in not always prudently. They wrote and spoke town, "the first graves to be filled with Hay­ many things for the purpose of attracting at­ wood and his crowd."^^ These, too, were tention (just as they organized Salvation fierce posturings, but posterity has not af­ Army-type brass bands in the Pacific North­ fixed a reputation for violence to textile com­ west). A Senator from Montana reported af­ panies, Roman Catholic priests, Boston law­ ter responding to local accusations of IWW yers, or New Jersey editors because of them. violence that the trouble consisted solely of Yet the evidence which accounts for the "a lot of intriguing and seditious talk."^^ IWW's reputation was no more substantial; The IWW cannot be exonerated from re­ it was based on words. sponsibility for the occasional violent utter­ Historians today would not as a rule react ances of its Western members; historical fig­ adversely to the idea of labor unionism. But ures and movements must be judged by their to regard the IWW as a force for violence in words as well as their deeds. However, the American industrial history is to be shackled IWW's contemporary accusers (and some sub­ by the antiunionist encumbrances of the past. sequent historians) might have paid closer The contemporaries of the Wobblies who af­ heed to those deeds (and to the words of anti- fixed the reputation for violence to the IWW violence which are far more numerous than knew that it was a labor union which they were attacking. If labor historians realize the same the Wobblies can be studied for what they were, rather than for what their enemies maintained they were. ™ Interviews by the author with Carl Keller, Fred Thompson, and several unnamed Wobblies, Chicago, August 6, 7, 9, 1965; Richard Brazier to the author. May 18, 1966; Carl Keller to the author, July 17, 1963; Fred Thompson to the author, March 6, July "^^ James O'Neal, "Catholicism and Socialism," in 24, August 1, 1965. Wayland's Monthly, II (April, 1915) ; Harry Emer­ "^ Robert F. Hoxie, Trade Unionism in the United son Fosdick, "After the Strike in Lawrence," in Out­ States (New York, 1917), 144. look, CI:340 (January 12, 1913) ; Paterson Press, ""Quoted in Preston, Aliens and Dissenters, 95. March 29, 1913.

326 gressman from Wisconsin. The 36" x 28" inch portrait, still on display in the Society's building, was one of a number which Lyman Copeland Draper wheedled out of prominent pioneer Wisconsinites for the Society's pic­ Communications ture gallery.

To THE EDITOR: To THE EDITOR: In reading the column, "An Editor's Sum­ mer," (Autumn, 1967), I found one of your Daniel Nelson's article on the origins of un­ "colorful oddments" expressly suited to the employment insurance in Wisconsin (Winter, rounding out of a paragraph in my family his­ 1968) impresses me as an excellent contribu­ tory on which, by the way, I have been work­ tion. But there is one error in it that you will ing on for quite a number of years. I had wish to note. The Robert A. Nixon who is previously written: "I have often wondered described (on page 109) as an assemblyman what brought my parents and other relatives to from Milwaukee actually represented Bayfield the small community of Port Edwards, Wis­ County, and his home town was the city of consin. Why was this place on the outskirts Washburn. I verify this from personal recol­ of the larger town of Grand Rapids, now the lection and from the Wisconsin Blue Book, thriving city of Wisconsin Rapids, made their 1931. The article correctly describes him as stopping off place?" "the progressive floor leader of the lower house." While I knew that there were promotion agents in Europe whose purpose it was to in­ duce people to emigrate to the western states, HAROLD M. GROVES I did not have any specific information in re­ Madison gard to the same thing for Wisconsin. There­ fore, your notation that it was the Wisconsin Central Railroad which was also active in this respect was of special interest to me. I have To THE EDITOR: added it to the paragraph mentioned above.

I have learned that you have devoted space ETHEL J. ODEGARD in the last issue of the Magazine (Winter, Washington, D.C. 1967-1968) to color reproductions of paint­ ings of the Fox River Valley, done by my grandfather, Thomas Marsden Brookes, in con­ EDITOR'S NOTE : Not only the Wisconsin Cen­ junction with Thomas Stevenson. I find in tral Railroad, but also the state itself was ac­ my grandfather's account book this item: tive in promoting immigration. In 1852 an "Sept. 14, 1856. Sketches of Fox River im­ official immigration commission was estab­ provements for Morgan L. Martin, $200: Dr. lished, with offices in New York. Gysbert Van M. C. Darling, Fond du Lac, for Hist. Soct., Steenwyck, who had emigrated from Holland $50." in his youth, was appointed first commission­ er, and he and his German assistant undertook to place ads in European newspapers and to Mrs. Lucy A. Marshall supply pamphlets and other information about Wisconsin to the largely German flood of im­ Santa Ana, California migrants heading west. The board was abo­ lished in 1855, re-established in 1867, and in 1871 was supplanted by a board working ex­ EDITOR'S NOTE: The second entry in Brookes' clusively within the state. account book refers to an oil portrait of About 1881, at the request of the president Mason C. Darling done by Brookes and pre­ of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, Kent K. sented to the Society by Darling in 1856. Kennan, a company employee, was appointed Darling, prominent in the early history of European representative of both the railroad Fond du Lac, was a physician, land specu­ and the state. From his headquarters in Basle, lator, territorial legislator, and later Con- Switzerland, Kennan flooded Europe with

327 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 literature. In 1882, for example, his office dis­ my intellectual horizon by also studying Euro­ tributed, mostly in Germany, 20,000 German- pean and international labor history. Conse­ language • pamphlets and 9,000 pocket-maps quently I gradually began to realize that while containing descriptions of Wisconsin's re­ Professor Woodward accurately designated sources, climate, and culture. Even after the the locale in which the "New Historians" were state abandoned its official immigration pro­ brought up, he overlooked the social and in­ gram in 1887, Kennan remained on active tellectual atmosphere that agitated at that time duty in Switzerland until 1891. For further that geographic region. The population was details see Kate Asaphine Everest, "How Wis­ stirred by the social ferment generated by the consin Came By Its Large German Element," militant, yes, volatile and impatient, agrarian in State Historical Society of Wisconsin Col- movements as finally epitomized by the Peo­ lections, XII: 299-334; and the Society's Pro­ ples' Party, popularly known as the Populist ceedings, 1903, 145-146. movement. Indeed this belligerent and challenging movement aroused the imaginations of many brought up in the West, who later became prominent academicians, professionals, and in­ To THE EDITOR: tellectuals. Among economists can be cited Lately the eminent historian. Professor C. Professor John R. Commons, who told me Van Woodward, published a series of informa­ that as a student and a printer, he was in tive and highly stimulating articles in the New his adulthood emotionally and intellectually York Times Sunday Magazine Section. As I captivated by the raging Populist movement. studied these articles I concluded that they For literary and cultural authorities Profes­ were concerned with the nature of the philoso­ sor Vernon L. Parrington of the University of phy and the methodology of history. Washington is a striking example. In my de­ Although the articles were most instruc­ sultory rummaging among his writings I tive and indeed challenging, one particularly, learned that in his youth Professor Parring­ entitled "The New Historians," intrigued me ton was active in the Populist movement, even to the extent that I continued cogitating upon having been a candidate on the Peoples' Party the ideas expressed therein. In comparing the ticket in one of the Rocky Mountain towns. thoughts expounded in this article against my Hamlin Garland, another child of the West, personal researches and general observations eloquently popularized in fiction the turbulent for over a half-century, the following reaction social ferment of the Agrarian-Populist per­ grew upon me as I was completing a manu­ iod. As for political scientists it is only neces­ script on "American Labor Ideologies: An sary to mention Professor James Allan Smith, Historical Analysis." (See also my, "The of the University of Washington, who in his Wisconsin Heritage and the Study of Labor: penetrating, analytical, and prophetic writings Words and Deeds of John R. Commons," pp. foretold the later sociological interpretation 7 //. in Wisconsin School for Workers — of the United States Constitution by the Chief 35th Anniversary, 1960.) Justice Earl Warren Supreme Court. Two of Professor Smith's books deserve serious study In studying the article on "The New His­ by historians of constitutional law, namely. torians," I gathered that Professor Woodward The Spirit of American Government, and characterized their contribution as introduc­ Growth and Decadence of Constitutional Gov­ ing a new approach in writing history. "The ernment. New Historians" treated history as being es­ pecially an interaction of economic, social, and And so the impact of the vital Agrarian- political forces. Professor Woodward then Populist social and political movements had enumerated some of the distinguished "New their profound influence on academic and Historians" who pioneered in presenting his­ other intellectuals, particularly raised in the tory as created by predominantly social forces. West. My cursory observations need more Among them were Frederick Jackson Turner, thorough probing. It would seem that there is Charles Beard, and Carl Becker. Professor a crying need for a study on "The Populist Woodward then indicated that "The New His­ Impact on Social Science Academicians and torians" were all reared in the "West." Other Intellectuals." Such a study should fill As a son of the Midwest, in my college days a neglected gap in American cultural history. at the University of Wisconsin I concentrated on economics and history, specializing in DAVID J. SAPOSS American labor history. Later I broadened Washington, D.C.

328 REVIEWS

The Roots of Racial Protest: A Review Essay

By LESLIE H. FISHEL^ JR.

Black and white Americans in the mid- was destroyed by black power demands for 1960's suddenly awoke to the realization that action and accusations of Uncle Tomism. In race relations meant dissent and friction— the South, lynching by rifle was met with and violence. For whites, the patronizing demonstrations which unnerved local com­ days of letting Negroes inch along toward munities to the point of desperation. Fric­ equal rights and privileges disappeared in tion, dissent—and violence—upset that de­ the smoke of Watts. For Negroes, the great ceptive balance between the races which had majority of whom hid behind a cloak of salved white and enslaved Negro consciences. anonymity and silence, the protective shield It need not have been this way; the storm signals flew, for those who would see them, for almost two centuries. Dissent and fric­ tion—and violence—have been concomitants of race relations from the beginning, and The Rattling Chains: Slave Unrest and Revolt frequently a dominant theme. We have ig­ in the Antebellum South. By NICHOLAS HA- nored, or distorted, the history of Negro- LASZ. (David McKay Company, Inc., New white relationships in this country at our York, 1966. Pp. 274. Bibliography, index. peril, until the doom-sayers are already cry­ $4.95.) ing "too late." But it is not too late, if we can understand this history and bring it Forgotten Voices: Dissenting Southerners in to bear on today's friction and dissent. an Age of Conformity. Edited by CHARLES These three books tell part of this story, E. WYNES. (Louisiana State University Press, though their quality is uneven. Nicholas Baton Rouge, 1967. Pp. xi, 138. Bibliographi­ Halasz has written a popularized narrative of cal note. $4.50.) "slave unrest and revolt" from the early eighteenth century down to Emancipation. NAACP: A History of the National Associa­ The point is clear: The Negro slave chafed tion for the Advancement of Colored People, under white restrictions and arrogance and Vol. I, 1909-1920. By CHARLES FLINT KEL­ created opportunities to rebel or escape. Un­ LOGG. (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Md., happily, Halasz' popularization is uncritical 1967, Pp. xi, 332. Illustrations, notes appen­ of sources and distended by its emphasis on dixes, bibliographical note, index. $8.75.) the dramatic. The long chapter on Denmark

329 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Vesey's revolt (1822) overlooks the very real Of the other five essayists, two—Thomas U. possibility, advanced by Richard Wade, that Dudley (1885) and Andrew Sledd (1902) — it never occurred at all. David Walker's Ap­ began with the premise that the Negro was peal (1828), accusing whites of inhuman treat­ inferior. Another, Lewis Harvie Blair (1893), ment of slaves and urging Negroes to stand argued that it was in the South's self-inter­ up and be men, was a significant tract, but est to remove the coerciveness which confined there is little evidence that it "stunned the the Negro and dissipated the energy of the South" or "toppled their peaceful illusions." white South. Yet each moved to a position The famous debates in the Virginia legislature which, standing apart from accepted dicta, in late 1831 and early 1832 reflected more encouraged greater compatibility and equal­ than a reaction to the Nat Turner revolt, but ity between the races. John Spencer Bassett Halasz disregards this larger context. (1903) and Quincy Ewing (1909) wrote with In spite of its defects. The Rattling Chains more wisdom, recognizing the problems with­ demonstrates once more that race dissent and out retreating from an equitable solution. For friction were a sizeable segment of our an­ Bassett the solution was "the adoption of tebellum past. The treatment of the period these children of Africa into our American between the Civil War and the First World life. In spite of our race feeling, of which War in most American history textbooks re­ the writer has his share, they will win equal­ fers to this segment only during Reconstruc­ ity at some time." Ewing countered the myths tion and again at the height of the lynching of Negro laziness, criminality, and ignorance mania. In Forgotten Voices: Dissenting with contemporary evidence and argued that Southerners in an Age of Conformity, Charles the white man's belief in Negro inferiority E. Wynes has brought together the essays and his efforts to keep him inferior were at of seven men who represent a little known the core of the race problem. The problem, facet of the dissent-and-friction dimension in Ewing's view, was a white not a black one. in that postbellum period. These seven dis­ Ignored as these white voices were, the dis­ senters must be viewed as voices crying in senting voice of the Negro was still more the wilderness, seeking to articulate posi­ contemptuously dismissed. It was not for tions to which less courageous but concurring lack of trying, since the Negro press of the Southerners might rally. But the South was nineteenth century was filled with protest— silent. As Wynes points out in his introduc­ bitter, frustrated, powerless—but with a ring tion, "there is no way of knowing or judging of truth. Not until the twentieth century did how many there really were" who agreed an organization establish itself firmly enough with his seven essayists. Few spoke up to to command attention. Charles Flint Kellogg, defend them, "while the multitude either con­ in the first volume of his NAACP: A History demned, or perhaps worse, simply ignored of the National Association for the Advance­ them." ment of Colored People, offers a close study Two essayists, George W. Cable and of the first eleven years of that organization, Thomas E. Watson, are familiar names to from 1909 to 1920. students of American history. Cable's "The Because Negro voices went unheeded, white Freedman's Case in Equity" (1885) was an reformers had to take the initiative in creat­ appeal to justice, based on a close examina­ ing the NAACP. The unquestioned hero of tion of the morality of the Negro's slave and the first volume is Oswald Garrison Villard, emancipated status. "To be a free man is grandson of the abolitionist and prominent still his distant goal," Cable said of the New York editor. It was Villard who shaped freedman, charging that whites on both sides the first call for a meeting in February, 1909, of the Mason-Dixon line were culpable. This and it was Villard who stepped into almost is dissent which empathized with the black every breach—financial, personal, political, man's frustrations and explained in large or administrative—to try to resolve the dif­ part the causes of friction. Watson wrote in ficulty. It is not that he was always right, 1892 as a Populist, and his orientation was but he was always there. political. His argument was framed in class Other men, notably W. E. B. DuBois and terms; the exploited white tenant farmer or Joel Spingarn, also played influential roles. laborer should join in political alliance with As editor of the Crisis, DuBois developed a the exploited black tenant farmer or laborer Negro journal which was at once articulate to resist further exploitation and protect their and provocative, a voice for black people to common interest. The friction was class- not which whites would listen, if not agree. It race-based, and the dissent was political. was DuBois who brought black dissent into

330 . s .,V

iS^ ^ . ?

S"',, r B,.i k- ( 'vcmi ^ family from the South arriving in Chicago during the World War I migration. the mainstream of American writing, though and discrimination in federal agencies. Dur­ in the process he caused some of the friction ing World War I the military services were an which troubled the infant organization. Spin­ NAACP target for their discriminatory treat­ garn, a white businessman, was a moderating ment of Negroes. influence within the organization and an out­ Kellogg is a meticulous scholar who utilizes spoken critic of racism. rich sources of hitherto unavailable primary Women were important participants dur­ sources. He tells the story in a straightforward ing these formative years, the most prominent manner with great detail. Although the ab­ of whom was Mary White Ovington, a white sence of the interpretive dimension gives the social worker. A stanch supporter of DuBois book a more narrow emphasis than the in the internecine disputes which plagued NAACP deserves, even in these early years, the NAACP, Miss Ovington never let per­ this study is solid history. sonalities obscure the Association's major The interpretive dimension, however, is the mission—to eradicate race discrimination sorely needed catalytic agent which will bring wherever it was to be found. the history of the Negro American into bal­ Even in these first years the NAACP pro­ ance. Until we can do more than describe vided a focus for dissent, a spotlight for friction and violence, and explicate dissent, friction and a vehicle to fight violence. Local we do a disservice to American history. For branches protested racist acts by demonstra­ the sake of knowledge and its possible ap­ tion and in the courts. The national office plication right now, we have to know more encouraged litigation, where there was local about relationships, about cultural ties, about support and defensible evidence. The na­ motivation. We have to ask "Why?" about tional secretary soon became a traveling the continuity of events over decades and troubleshooter, visiting racial sore spots and centuries, and not only about specific in­ gathering evidence. The Crisis reported, in­ cidents or protests. We should know the terpreted, and was read. The national officers, roots of the friction and dissent—and violence particularly Villard, had access to congres­ —which plague Negro-white relations today, sional leaders and the White House and end­ and we should expose these roots as part of lessly urged national action against lynching our nation's heritage. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

But "culture" ultimately defeated the wilder­ ness. Full-fledged Gothic and Classical Reviv­ al, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Eclectic­ STATE AND REGIONAL ism sprang up everywhere, not peculiar to, nor expressive of, anything regional. In section three, consequently, Perrin devotes increased attention to European backgrounds of Amer­ ican styles, supplemented by analysis of the The Architecture of Wisconsin. By RICHARD better Wisconsin specimens. He obviously W. E. PERRIN. (State Historical Society of feels more at home with "real" local architec­ Wisconsin, Madison, 1967. Pp. vii, 175. Illus­ ture: section three is more general in its his­ trations, notes, index. $7.50.) torical analysis and more cursory in its treat­ ment of individual buildings than the pre- There are three "types" of architecture to ceeding chapters. consider in this kind of book: ethnic architec­ The last part of the book, almost one-fifth ture, not designed by professionals but born of its text and illustrations, is devoted to Frank from the folk traditions and cultural life of Lloyd Wright. Whether he represents that Wisconsin's national groups; work in the state much of the state's architectural achievement by trained local architects; and outstanding or is a rhetorical question. The amount of space representative buildings by nonresidents. Mr. devoted to Wright is therefore problematical Perrin treats the first type excellently, more and in some ways poorly utilized. There are, thoroughly and sympathetically than the other for instance, three photographs (two are al­ two, perhaps because The Architecture of Wis­ most identical) of the Hillside Home School consin is partly a treatise for the preservation near Spring Green, but only one of the vast­ of historic buildings now falling into decay. ly larger, more important, and more challeng­ Unhindered by the annoying repetition of ing Taliesin. The inconsequential Spencer "ruinous" to describe the condition of many House (not supervised by Wright or built ac­ "ethnic" and "native" structures, Perrin's cording to his specifications) on Lake Dela- plea is necessary and timely. van is illustrated, but not its distinguished "Because of its rich and varied background neighbors. Nor are there any photographs of ethnic and national origins," Perrin writes of Wright's prefabricated homes. Perrin's in his preface, Wisconsin "possessed an archi­ division of Wright's career into seven arbi­ tectural heritage of exceptional historical sig­ trary (hardly "organic") periods tends to nificance about which very little had been support the hasty thinking that has already written in a definitive way." He then proceeds shrouded the architect in myth and legend. to remedy the situation with a detailed analy­ Nevertheless, section four is an adequate in­ sis of Wisconsin's German and Scandinavian troduction to Wright (do we need another?), legacy, followed by an equally careful and and there are several interpretive comments enlightening discussion of the adaptation of that are incisive. But the book creates the European traditions to the building materials erroneous impression that Wisconsin archi­ and social priorities of American conditions. tecture ends in 1959 with Wright's death. The first two sections of the book—"Ethnic There is no place for his contemporaries or for Survivals" and "Native Manifestations"—are newcomers. the best, for Perrin has digested local history Partly, this oversight stems from the fact and displays an impressive mastery of the that the four parts originally appeared as arti­ technical aspects of the buildings he appraises. cles in this journal. The author has made only Anyone interested in pre-Civil War architec­ minor "corrections and emendations," allow­ ture will surely profit from his text and illus­ ing the book to stand as "a series of essays." trations. The reader should be aware, therefore, that With section three—"Styles and Trends, The Architecture of Wisconsin is not a unified 1850-1950"—the book shifts gears. Of neces­ or a complete study of the local scene, but sity, the emphasis turns from what was pecu­ is a collection, really, of isolated high points. liarly Wisconsinian to local examples of na­ Consequently, no mention is made (or can tional architectural developments. As the be) of Wright's contemporaries, his follow­ frontier was overpowered by imported East­ ers, or of recent architecture. And there are ern culture, it made a last-ditch effort, as other unfortunate omissions: Louis Sullivan, Perrin demonstrates, to adapt Greek and Goth­ Purcell and Elmslie, prairie designs in gen­ ic Revival to regional needs and expressions. eral, Holabird and Root, and the curious and

332 BOOK REVIEWS the quaint, like the Cornish buildings at Min­ The Frontier against Slavery: Western Anti- eral Point or Wisconsin's four covered bridges. Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension In order not to mislead the reader, Perrin Controversy. By EUGENE H. BERWANGER. should have entitled his book SOME Archi- (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1967. ture of Wisconsin, for what is left out is as Pp. X, 176. Notes, bibliography, index. $5.95.) important as what is included. In terms of editing and the art of book- making. The Architecture of Wisconsin has Berwanger's thesis is that racial prejudice its shortcomings. Its dimensions (11^/4 by was part and parcel of the antislavery move­ 8^) makes handling and storage difficult. ment on the American frontier. In the Old Reference is always easier if photographs are Northwest, the adjacent states, and later in numbered and separately indexed. For a stu­ California, Oregon, Kansas, and the territo­ dy which is in many ways pioneering, a bib­ ries, antislavery was simply the most effective liography is almost a necessity. More than way to insure an all-white society. As one once buildings described in the text as "quite Illinois legislator put it, "We want neither the most distinguished" or "one of the most slaves or [sic] free negroes. They are both curious" are not illustrated, especially frus­ unprofitable members of society, and ought trating in the case of the fourteen-sided John to be avoided rather than invited." Such mid- Chiviok barn—"certainly one of the most westerners thought that if slavery were estab­ photogenic." There are some excellent detail lished a troublesome population of free Ne­ shots but few of interiors. groes would eventually be created, and that Because Mr. Perrin has been content to re­ without immigration restrictions their states publish his essays without filling the gaps be­ would be inundated by free Negroes who were tween them, The Architecture of Wisconsin being forced out of the South. Unsuccessful is curiously representative of the state in a efforts to introduce full-scale slavery into Il­ way the author might not have anticipated. linois and Indiana only heightened fears, and Wisconsin tends to eulogize its few heroes, in the 1830's Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana de­ out of proportion, perhaps, to their real nied Negroes the ballot, refused to allow them achievements. Apologists for Robert M. La to testify in court against whites, and prohibit­ Follette and Joseph R. McCarthy, for exam­ ed them from serving in the militia; more im­ ple, have become minions for their now super­ portant, however, were the laws which ex­ human leaders. It is not Perrin's analysis of cluded free Negroes from settlement. Similar Frank Lloyd Wright (and of German and laws were later debated in other states, the Scandinavian architecture) that is his weak­ author notes, as the prejudices of settlers from ness but his sense of proportion and purpose. the Old Northwest accompanied them where- The time has come for Wisconsin to end its ever they went. Only the fear that it would self-congratulation for those things that have, jeopardize chances for statehood prevented by chance, made it nationally prominent. (Af­ the insertion of an exclusion clause in the ter all, being Scandinavian and German, un­ California constitution. Oregon also reflected like treating Wright shabbily, was not a mat­ the biases of its midwestern population, but ter of decision.) Perrin is not a "We Like it anti-Negro prejudice was most explosive in Here" booster, but his choice of what to ap­ Kansas, where the free-state Topeka constitu­ praise and what not to (first made in article tion provided for the exclusion of free Ne­ form) compliments again in a scholarly fash­ groes. ion what has already been duly and uncritical­ ly applauded. Lack of enforcement of the anti-Negro laws is Berwanger's persistent minor theme. For example, both the Illinois and Indiana terri­ ROBERT C. TWOMBLY tories had a system of lifetime indentures, University of Wisconsin slaves worked in the Illinois lead mines until 1822, and free Negroes continued to migrate despite state legislation designed to prevent them. The daily routine of life therefore varied from the standard established by laws and con­ stitutions. The author takes only small note of this, for in the main he has written a legis­ lative study. But since the black laws were not rigidly enforced they cannot be an accurate index to western anti-Negro prejudice.

333 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Of special interest is the fact that Wiscon­ John R. Commons, Leiserson by 1910 was on sin appears to have been the most liberal state the forefront of the movement for public em­ in the Old Northwest, for there the only legal ployment offices. In the 1920's he helped restriction concerned suffrage. In an 1849 re­ establish progressive patterns of collective bar­ ferendum only a third of those who voted gaining as impartial chairman in the Rochester bothered to register their opinion on the clothing industry, and in the following decade franchise question (a majority favored the he joined the migration of experts to Washing­ ballot for Negroes but the proposition failed ton. Among his numerous assignments was because it did not get a majority of all votes his chairmanship of the National Mediation cast). In 1857 the voters again opposed Negro Board from 1934 to 1939. Thereafter, from voting, however, the count was closer than in 1939 to 1943, he climaxed his career by serv­ some other states. But why did Wisconsin ing the National Labor Relations Board, again restrict only the vote? Why were so many as chairman, at a time very critical in the voters apathetic in 1849? Was the answer less Board's development. prejudice or fewer Negroes? The former hard­ Michael Eisner succeeds in acquainting the ly seems possible, but the latter undoubtedly reader with Leiserson and his context, but played a role, for in 1860 the Negro popula­ does not quite solve the problems of biograph­ tion of Wisconsin was only 1,171. Even so ical writing. Lapses such as occasional non- this explanation is insufficient, for the num­ sequiturs, reoccurring sentence patterns, col­ ber of free Negroes in the Iowa population loquialisms, chronological confusion, and an in both 1850 and 1860 was proportional to the organization that makes for unnecessary repe­ number in Wisconsin. Yet Iowa not only tition detract from the story of the man. But denied the ballot to its free Negro residents, these are more or less petty difficulties. Much but restricted Negro immigration, prohibited more fundamental is the problem of judging intermarriage, and forbade Negroes from serv­ when Leiserson's contribution was really not­ ing in the state legislature or militia. What­ able, and when it was merely the expression ever the reasons for the difference between of an emerging "conventional wisdom." Wisconsin and Iowa, Berwanger makes no at­ tempt to explain them. Indeed, he virtually Unquestionably, Leiserson was present and omits Wisconsin from his discussion. helped to formulate such institutions as public employment offices, unemployment insurance, Despite this criticism this book is a useful and national labor relations agencies. But and worthy addition to the growing list of with many of the ideas he espoused already studies dealing with the history of the anti- "in the air," and frequently much further de­ slavery movement in America. If it does veloped in Europe than in America, how nothing else but remind the reader of the ex­ original were his contributions? To assess tremes to which men are led by racial preju­ Leiserson's role in innovating the idea of em­ dice, it will have served its purpose. ployment offices, Eisner depended upon a later opinion from a secondary source rather RICHARD E. BERINGER than demonstrating a first-hand knowledge of California State College at Hayward the evidence (p. 30). Discussing unemploy­ ment insurance he gives Leiserson an undue amount of credit for the 1932 Ohio plan by referring to it as "Leiserson's original bill" which Leiserson had "developed and written as chairman of the Ohio Commission on Un­ William Morris Leiserson: A Biography. By employment Insurance" (p. 93) ; when in fact J. MICHAEL EISNER. (University of Wisconsin a Consumers' League group headed by Rabbi Press, Madison, Milwaukee, and London, Abba Hillel Silver had developed the main 1967. 144 pages. Notes, bibliography, index. outlines of the Ohio Plan, and another mem­ $6.75.) ber, Cleveland attorney Marvin Harrison, had drafted a bill embodying the plan's essentials about a year before the Ohio Commission William Morris Leiserson won his place in began its work. Perhaps it is impossible pre­ recent American history by helping to shape cisely to delineate a personal role in an age the institutions surrounding industrial labor when most ideas emerge from lengthy discus­ relations. Born in 1883, reared as a Russian sions among experts, and most decisions come Jewish immigrant child among the textile from committees and boards—especially when shops of New York's Lower East Side, much the person's chief contribution tended to be influenced by the Wisconsin reform economist

334 iety's Iconographic Collection William M. Lesierson (second from right) with other past presidents of the Industrial Relations Research Association, December 1933, in Washington. Left to right: Sumner Schlicter, George Taylor, E. E. Witte, Ewen Clague, Leiserson, and Douglas Brown. perfecting and oiling institutions and admin­ Yet the book is worth a quick reading, even istrative procedures rather than radical in­ for such people. The chapter dealing with novation and dramatic leadership. Leiserson's chairmanship of the National Part of Eisner's difficulty stems from the Labor Relations Board does delve quite deeply brevity of his treatment. Brevity has its own into the issues and does assess Leiserson's per­ virtue, of course, but to assess carefully Lei­ sonal role quite well. The entire book affords serson's contribution and to illuminte ade­ a view of the development of labor relations quately even the main historical and economic institutions from the perspective of an insider. issues that Leiserson's life touched would re­ It also offers a broad view of that institutional quire far more than the book's ninety-four development by clustering together a series of pages of text. The author passes over many different but related problems. It illustrates interesting questions, as for instance why the truth that creation of well-functioning in­ stitutions depends much more on intelligent Leiserson broke with Commons on unemploy­ administration and solution of technical pro­ ment insurance when on virtually every other blems than on theory. Finally, it may offer matter his position was a recognizable em­ some light on a larger historical question bodiment of Commons' ideas of institutional which needs further study: why have econom­ economics. And he seldom delves very deeply ists and historians so universally ignored John into the issues surrounding even those prob­ R. Commons' abstract ideas, when he was so lems he does recognize. One suspects that successful in getting his practical ideas insti­ most people who are well enough acquainted tutionalized through his and his students' ef­ with the history of industrial relations to care forts during the Progressive and New Deal about Leiserson's role will wish that Eisner periods1 ?o would offer more fresh and detailed revelations from Leiserson's papers and other primary sources. THERON F. SCHLABACH Goshen College

335 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

sources be leased to private developers under CONSERVATION strict conditions; Ballinger advocated outright HISTORY sale. In Penick's estimation this divergence in political philosophy explains the Ballinger- Pinchot affair and, by implication, the schism between Roosevelt and Taft. Most of this book is a blow-by-blow account Progressive Politics and Conservation: The of the conflict between Ballinger and Pinchot. Ballinger-Pinchot Affair. By JAMES PENICK, The author traces its roots to 1907 when Bal­ JR. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, linger came from Seattle to the Capital to re­ 1968. Pp. XV, 207. Notes, bibliography, in­ organize the General Land Office, a bureau dex. $7.50.) which the zealous Chief Forester considered hostile to conservation. We are then present­ ed with a complicated and necessarily detailed The controversy of 1909 and 1910 between story of how General Land Office agent Louis Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger A. Glavis acted almost catalytically to bring and Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot has re­ on open hostilities. Penick has drunk deeply ceived more attention than any other single at the primary sources including the personal episode in the history of American conserva­ papers of Ballinger, Pinchot, James R. Gar­ tion. Professor Penick now offers yet another field, Frederick H. Newell, and Taft. He reconstruction and interpretation. "I have strives to enliven his involved narrative, some­ tried," he writes, "to restore a basic unity times successfully. One admires more, how­ to a historical event long fragmented by sev­ ever, the sense of chronology and context he eral generations of special pleading, considera­ displays as he weaves together many threads. tions of policy, or the brevity imposed by larg­ But Penick does not content himself with story er purposes." On the whole, he has suc­ telling. There are forthright and fair judg­ ceeded; his book should long remain the final ments of purpose and consequence in this ac­ word. count that lift it above the level of narrative In explaining the Ballinger-Pinchot contro­ history. versy, Penick leans most heavily on the well- known central dialogue in the Progressives' RODERICK NASH discussion of the role of government. At the University of California, Santa Barbara outset of the book we learn of Theodore Roo­ sevelt's desire for "new controls of the great sprawling pluralism of industrial America." Roosevelt accepted responsible consolidation as a positive good. Indeed, he wanted the Wilderness and the American Mind. By ROD­ federal government to act like a huge, effi­ ERICK NASH. (Yale University Press, New cient corporation capable of enlightened man­ Haven and London, 1967. Pp. ix, 236. Notes, agement in the public interest. Nowhere was bibliography, index. $6.50.) this desire more evident than in the matter of natural resources. As Pinchot and the other Wilderness and the American Mind is an in­ leaders of Rooseveltian resource policy saw novative book. Instead of focusing mainly on it, "conservation" meant comprehensive and political, economic, or administrative trends, co-ordinated management by experts in the as historians of conservation have done for the interest of efficient and economic develop­ past two decades, Roderick Nash emphasizes ment. the ideas and assumptions underlying the at­ William Howard Taft and Ballinger, on the titudes of Americans toward their environ­ other hand, had other ideals. According to ment. From the Puritans of New England to Penick, they cherished the open, freely compe­ the purists of the Sierra Club, the focus is on titive market and believed in government in­ man's conception of the wilderness. tervention only to the extent necessary to in­ The book begins with an explanation of the sure the operation of the natural laws of com­ negative bias toward wilderness that was deep­ merce. In their opinion Roosevelt went too far ly rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of toward state control. Private capital, not the western world. To the Puritans, wilder­ government bureaus, should develop natural ness was the very symbol of evil. When they resources. To give substance to the point, came to America in the seventeenth century Pinchot preferred that public lands and re­ they expected to "conquer" the wilderness be-

336 BOOK REVIEWS

cause, according to the Bible, God had given Wilderness and the American Mind may man "dominion" over nature. Settlers car­ be criticized on a number of counts. It skims ried this idea with them as they moved west. too rapidly over the enormous changes in Nash analyzes the hostile and utilitarian atti­ attitude that have taken place since Hetch tudes of the pioneers. "In the morality play Hetchy. It devotes relatively too much atten­ of westward expansion," he writes, "wilder­ tion to men like James Fenimore Cooper and ness was the villain, and the pioneer, as hero, Thomas Cole, while neglecting George Per­ relishes its destruction." With the flowering kins Marsh and ignoring John Wesley Powell. of Romanticism in the early nineteenth cen­ It overemphasizes the importance of the Echo tury new attitudes start to emerge. Park Dam controversy of the 1950's. And it Appreciation of the wilderness first ap­ deals inadequately with the achievements of peared in the cities, as "literary gentlemen" the National Park Service, whose leaders car­ viewed nature with increasing fondness. By ried the preservationist banner in Washington the middle of the nineteenth century, Nash long before the Wilderness Society was found­ explains, the "American wilderness" had ed. taken on some of the attributes of a cultural These criticisms should be noted but not and moral resource and had become "a basis stressed. The book's strengths clearly out­ for national self-esteem." The "wild" quality weigh its weaknesses. Specialists in the his­ of our environment, it was asserted, had tory of conservation in the United States will uniquely shaped our national character. Poets, recognize that Roderick Nash has added novelists, artists, and historians elaborated on a new dimension to the literature of the field. this theme. In the first decade of the twentieth century, DONALD C. SWAIN according to Nash, a "Wilderness Cult" came University of California, Davis into existence in celebration of the frontier, which had recently disappeared, and in pro­ test against the material preoccupation of an industrialized society. It was dedicated to the protection of wilderness and to the prepetua- tion of frontier values which, the cultists be­ GENERAL HISTORY lieved, accounted for our national greatness. Inspired by John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Bob Marshall, and stirred by the memory of Hetch Hetchy, conservationists and nature Divorce In The Progressive Era. By WILLIAM lovers initiated a national crusade to save the L. O'NEILL. (Yale University Press, New wilderness. By the 1960's, popular attitudes Haven, 1967. Pp. xii, 295. Notes, bibliogra­ toward wilderness had changed greatly. Once phy, index. $6.50.) the symbol of evil, the wilderness was now cherished for its purity and prized as a place "The Progressive Era may be defined," of refuge from the tensions of urban living. Henry May has written, "as the time when Wilderness areas in the United States, Nash people wanted to make a number of sharp concludes, may "well be loved out of exist­ changes because they were so confident in ence" in the next century. the basic rightness of things as they were." The author is at his best in dealing with the William O'Neill in a spritely and provocative ideas of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, little book, studies the public debate over and Aldo Leopold. He portrays Thoreau as divorce and touches on many aspects of Amer­ the "Philosopher," who led the "intellectual ican life and the changes advocated and re­ revolution that was beginning to invest wild­ sisted by a strange and fascinating cast of erness with attractive rather than repulsive characters—Mona Caird, George Howard, qualities." Muir is seen as the "Publicizer," Samuel Dike, and other names more familiar. who echoed the thoughts of Thoreau but "ar­ Political reform in the Progressive Era has ticulated them with an intensity and enthu­ long intrigued historians, but O'Neill's book siasm that commanded widespread attention." is another in a growing list of recent studies Leopold is interpreted as the "Prophet," who which examine the broader aspects of society combined the "logic of a scientist with the and reform in the decades which mark the ethical and aesthetic sensitivity of a Roman­ first years of our time. tic" and ultimately proposed a "new relation­ This book is broader than its title might ship between man and land." indicate. In his preface the author suggests

337 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 four themes with which he deals: "mass di­ though they often were accused not only of vorce as a chapter in the history of the Amer­ advocating divorce, but also of preaching free ican family; the influence of ideology on fam­ love. O'Neill creates several broad categories ily change; the ways in which groups and in­ to define attitudes toward divorce including dividuals respond to this kind of social "conservatives," "liberals" and "New Moral­ change; and the insights into the popular ists" but he also is concerned with "social thought of a period that may emerge from the scientists," and "progressives," and discusses study of such behavior." But even this ac­ various European writers who touched on the counting is not a fair indication of the scope problem—Ibsen and Shaw, for example. It of the book, for divorce raises the problem is not always clear why particular individ­ of attitudes toward marriage, the family, child­ uals or groups developed their ideas or pre­ hood, sex ("divorce was almost the only 're­ judices on the subject, and the rather artificial spectable' sexual problem that could be public­ categories (especially "New Moralists") do ly debated"), women's rights, prostitution, and not help very much. It is obvious that one a host of other topics. He is not especially con­ could be a political liberal and oppose di­ cerned with the process by which more liberal vorce—Felix Adler is a good example. And divorce laws were passed, though he does have one could favor divorce for a variety of rea­ a brief chapter on "The Politics of Divorce." sons; women could approve more liberal di­ Nor is he primarily interested in connecting vorce laws as part of the movement to grant divorce reform with "Progressivism writ more sexual freedom to their sex, but it was large" as Lawrence Cremin has done for edu­ also possible to favor divorce, as some femi­ cational reform and Roy Lubove for the at­ nists did, because marriage seemed to bind tack on prostitution. The focus is on the pub­ women to the "sexual appetites" of their hus­ lic debate over divorce, and thus his prin­ bands. ciple sources are published, especially books and periodical articles. The very diversity of attitudes, and the fact that O'Neill tries to accomplish so much in In his first chapter O'Neill makes imagina­ a brief space, occasionally makes this a diffi­ tive use of such studies as Philip Aries, Cen­ cult book to read, despite a fascinating subject turies of Childhood. Increased divorce in the and an easy and informal style. The book years after the Civil War did constitute a is more suggestive than definitive, it raises change in family relationship, but far from more questions than it answers, but it intro­ representing the last gasp of a dying institu­ duces an important subject and should be tion, as many at the time thought, divorce welcomed by all who wish to understand the served as the "safety valve" for the modern Progressive Era, and our own time. family system which enlarged in the nine­ teenth century. "When families are large and ALLEN F. DAVIS loose, arouse few expectations and make few University of Missouri demands, there is no need for divorce. But when families become the center of social organization, their intimacy can become suf­ focating, their demands unbearable, and their expectations too high to be easily realizable. The combination of the modern family, and Challenge to the Court: Social Scientists and the ideology of liberalism in the nineteenth the Defense of Segregation, 1954-1966. By century which put great emphasis on equality, I. A. NEWBY. (Louisiana State University individualism, and romantic love, led to the Press, Baton Rouge, 1967. Pp. xii, 239. Notes, conviction that if family life became unpleas­ index, $6.50.) ant or unhappy one had a right to change it." But not everyone, in the Progressive Era, The persistence of racism has been one of accepted this philosophy about the nature of the dominant themes of American civilization. the family. O'Neill carefully traces and at­ In fact, as I. A. Newby, William Stanton, and tempts to untangle the diversity of attitudes. Thomas F. Gossett have shown in their previ­ There were some "Victorians" who saw the ous books, the inherent inequality of races rising divorce rates as meaning the end of was an accepted thesis among most scientists the family and the collapse of civilization. of the nineteenth and early twentieth cen­ But most of the debate took place within the turies. Yet while this has been true, mass Progressive consensus. The political radicals concern with race differences and the intensity were rarely involved in the controversy, of public debate on race issues has varied sig-

338 BOOK REVIEWS

nificantly in our history and has generally re­ "genetic pool," their argument continues, flected American interest in problems of na­ transmits moral and ethical as well as intel­ tional policy: slavery. Reconstruction, imperi­ lectual race traits that would, if "mass mixing" alism, immigration. The revival of popular is permitted, pollute America's character and racism that characterized discussions of these ultimately lead to eugenic catastrophe and na­ earlier questions has also typified the 1950's tional disaster. Anyone familiar with the and 1960's. I. A. Newby, author of Jim Crow's writings of Josiah C. Nott and Samuel George Defense: Anti-Negro Thought in America, Morton in the pre-Civil War years, and their 1900-1930 (1965), has written with clarity successors thereafter, will easily recognize the and precision about this most recent period old racism in new garb. in Challenge to the Court. Newby takes the new scientific racists seri­ The 1954 Brown decision was a turning ously and concentrates on the content of their point in American racial history and the im­ ideas rather than the impact of their views on mediate occasion for the resuscitation of racist others. His approach throughout the book ideologies. Newby has chosen to write less has been to summarize their writings with an of the more blatantly virulent demagogues, occasional pause to point out logical incon­ those who "speak niggra" at KKK meetings sistencies in their conceptualization. His most and Little Rock, than of the academic re­ interesting and fresh chapters deal with the spectables behind the movement. The people attempt to create a segregationist social sci­ whose ideas he analyzes are men who object ence that the federal courts might use to re­ to being labelled as racists. Henry E. Garrett, place the supposedly biased reasoning that Audrey M. Shuey, Frank C. J. McGurk, Wesley found acceptance in the Brown case. C. George, Ernest van den Haag, Robert T. But to deal primarily with the ideas of a Osborne, and many others, hold Ph.D's., teach George, a Shuey, a Garrett, is necessarily to in universities, and consider themselves rea­ build a tone of monotony into the book. These sonable and moderate men of science. In the writers not only share the same scientific and last two decades they have produced a torrent racial premises but regularly correspond with of essays and books on the genetic inferiority one another and praise each other's works. of black people and have also banded together Intellectually, they are quite inbred. An ad­ to arrange for the wider distribution of their ditional measure of sophistication and subtlety views. The chief institutional expressions of might have surmounted this problem. I would their ideas are the International Association have appreciated some in-depth biographical for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugen­ explorations of the major figures of the move­ ics and its journal. Mankind Quarterly. ment or perhaps an impressionistic portrait Although Newby chose not to emphasize of the collective mind of the racist social scien­ the point, I was impressed with the striking tist. Such criticism, however, should in no similarity between what these men have to say way detract from the acknowledged and solid and the collective wisdom of their proslavery accomplishment that Newby has made. His forebears: Race separation, they argue, is the book is a valuable contribution in a doubly natural recognition of the biological inferior­ tough research area: tough most obviously ity of Negroes. Blacks are innately cheerful, because of the touchiness of the issues involv­ childish, sensual, and irresponsible, while Cau­ ed, and also because it deals with an ongoing casians (especially Anglo-Saxons) are self- and undoubtedly proliferating social phenome­ controlled, honorable, independent, talented non. Newby has written a clear and dispas­ in building democratic governments and tech­ sionate book about a murky and emotional nological civilizations. Blacks too have special subject. talents, but they are superior only in the qual­ ities least relevant to human progress, and GILBERT OSOFSKY their collective psyche will rest most con­ University of Illinois at Chicago Circle tent when it learns its quasi-human status. Equalitarian social scientists, befogged by sentimentality, fail to read the starkly clear evidence of race inferiority that emerges from I.Q. tests and other psychological examina­ tions. Furthermore, the equalitarians have en­ tered into a massive though covert conspiracy, similar to the Communist cabal, to stifle the free expression of their opponents. The black

339 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

William Penn: Politics and Conscience. By ing the propositions of the two men. Harring­ MARY MAPLES DUNN. (Princeton University ton's ideas permeated political thinking dur­ Press, Princeton, 1967. Pp. x, 206. Biblio­ ing the Restoration, and similar suggestions graphy, index. $6.00.) can be found in the constitutions of Carolina and the Jerseys. The first reaction to William Penn: Politics The position that Penn's political ideas and Conscience is, "What, yet another book changed and became increasingly conservative on Penn?" There certainly have been a num­ is correct, but the author does not fully ex­ ber in recent years, but Mrs. Dunn's book plore the reasons for this phenomenon, nor does fit a need. Edwin B. Bronner, in William does this writer think she correctly dates it. Penn's Holy Experiment (1962), explained A more careful examination of Penn's involve­ early Pennsylvania history as a failure to put ment in the Jerseys, particularly as Trustee Quakerism into effect; Joseph Illick, in Wil­ and shareholder in West Jersey, might have liam Penn, the Politician (1965), dealt pri­ provided an additional explanation for his in­ marily with Penn's relations with important creasing conservatism. individuals in England as an explanation for Dunn accepts the idea that Penn wrote the what he was able to accomplish; and Vincent Concessions of West Jersey in 1676. If she Buranelli, in The King and the Quaker (1962), is correct then Penn's shift towards greater defended Penn's relationship with James II conservatism is obviously not in 1685 but in on the grounds that both men were primarily 1682 when the First Frame was drafted. If, concerned with toleration, and argued, despite as John Pomfret maintains (see particularly the facts, that Penn was not inconsistent. Dunn his 1948 article in the William and Mary differs in that she concentrates on Penn's Quarterly), Penn did not write the Conces­ political and religious thought, and the changes sions, he was never as liberal as some have that occurred in his position. Far more than argued, and his later position becomes more the above-mentioned authors, she is concerned understandable. with Penn as a thinker. The most important contribution of the book is its portrait of Penn as the complex Dunn traces Penn's intellectual develop­ and inconsistent individual that he was, as "a ment from 1660, emphasizing his political philosopher and politician" combining "ideal­ thought in the election of 1679 during which ism and realism, sophistication and inno­ he wrote a number of significant pamphlets, cence, cunning and trustfulness, success and through the Frames of Government for Penn­ failure." The book does not idolize Penn or sylvania in 1682 and 1683, the defense of attempt to justify his mistakes. Penn is shown James II in 1685-1688, proposals for inter­ as a man with one objective—the establish­ national peace and intercolonial government ment of toleration in England and America— in the 1690's, to his acceptance of the Penn­ but willing to use different means to attain sylvania Frame of 1701 in which the colonists his goal. rejected many of his political ideas. The main thesis of the book is that the "key to the young Penn's politics was liberty of conscience." MAXINE F. NEUSTADT The fight for toleration guided all his political Marquette University activities, led him to support Parliament and the Whigs in 1679 and after 1685 to support and defend James II, as first Parliament and then the Crown appeared the source most capable of satisfying his main objective. In China Market: America's Quest for Informal addition, the alteration in Penn's stance is Empire, 1893-1901. By THOMAS J. MCCOR- ascribed to his acquisition of Pennsylvania MACK. (Quadrangle Books, Inc., Chicago, and consequent need to defend his province. 1967. Pp. 239. $6.50.) The book is based on a close reading of the numerous pamphlets written by Penn as well This book drives another nail in the cof­ as the remnants of his extensive correspond­ fin of that body of historical scholarship that ence. It is a concise, well written work. None­ explains American overseas expansion at the theless several criticisms can be leveled at it. end of the nineteenth century as the acci­ Dunn states that James Harrington's specific dental, unplanned, and aberrational product influence on Penn is hard to prove, and then of Manifest Destiny, or as the result of events spends an inordinate amount of time compar­ basically out of America's control. McCor-

340 BOOK REVIEWS

mack convincingly demonstrates that this Professor McCormack through his pains­ expansion was a rational and conscious re­ taking, thorough research strengthens and sponse by American leaders to the economic supports the earlier works of William A. Wil­ and social disorders created by the crisis of liams, Walter LaFeber, and Richard Van Al- the 1890's. This "power elite," defined by styne by exposing in lucid style the dynamics McCormack as "the business community (ex­ of expansion at the end of the century and by clusive of small and local enterprise) and its uncovering the American leadership's ration­ political and intellectual allies," viewed mar­ ale for expansion per se, whether it be eco­ ketplace expansion as a means of "export­ nomic, or territorial, in the Pacific, or in the ing the social question," for in their analysis Western Hemisphere. The book, however, suf­ extended foreign markets would insure social fers from the narrowness of the author's ap­ stability, restore economic prosperity, and proach; what is at once the basic strength perhaps most important, preserve the existing of his analysis is also its greatest weakness. system. The key to the success of the expan­ By dealing exclusively with the political and sionist doctrine was China, which loomed business establishment, the author overlooks as the most inviting and tempting market the extent to which the appeal and acceptance in the American leaders' dreams of commer­ of overseas economic expansion as a cure for cial conquest. America's ills pervaded the society. This was especially true among the farmers and their Both the Cleveland and the McKinley ad­ allies, who after all still made up a majority ministrations shared this broad outlook and of the population in the 1890's. The farmers agreed upon the necessity of overseas econo­ displayed the same pragmatism that McCor­ mic expansion. It was in the means to that mack ascribes to the McKinley Administra­ end, however, that there existed a decided and tion as they earlier had defined extended over­ pronounced difference between the two lead­ seas markets as crucial to their economic, ers and their advisors. Cleveland, on the one and hence political, freedom. Although gen­ hand, accepted the policy of the Open Door erally opposed to overseas territorial acquisi­ as the way for America to expand, but "with tions, they favored or rejected territorial a laissez faire twist" that denigrated overt expansion on the basis of whether it en­ government involvement and forbade over­ hanced or hindered America's position in seas territorial expansion. McKinley, on the the world's markets. The agrarians wanted other hand, while adhering to the principle of railroad regulation, improved water trans­ the Open Door, favored direct government portation, reciprocity treaties, a revived mer­ aid to America's commercial crusade, and chant marine, an American-controlled isth­ accepted territorial expansion where neces­ mian canal, and the remonetization of silver sary to enhance the nation's competitive mar­ to improve their position in the world market­ ketplace position. In a word, the McKinley place. The Republican administrations from Administration was "pragmatic" in its pur­ Hayes to Harrison recognized these demands suit of overseas economic expansion, and the and formulated their foreign policy with the Open Door Notes became the "methodologi­ farmer in mind. McCormack ignores the ex­ cal" answer to the problem of how to ex­ tent to which the "power elite" moved to ac­ pand. It was a typical American mixture of cept and adopt the analysis and policy that anticolonialism and economic imperialism, or American farmers had advocated and prac­ as McCormack neatly labels it, "the im­ ticed for at least two decades. This neglect perialism of anti-imperialism." The acquisi­ leads the author to overemphasize the catalytic tion of Hawaii, Guam, Wake, and the Philip­ role of the 1893 crisis in influencing and shaping the thinking of American political, pines also revealed the eclectic nature of the business, and industrial leaders. The panic McKinley Administration's expansionism. of 1893 certainly had an impact, but by slight­ This Pacific island empire was not taken for ing the earlier experience of the agricultural its own intrinsic economic worth, or as the sector, he constructs a rather artificial, self- fulfillment of a second wave of Manifest Des­ serving argument about the importance of tiny, nor as the venting of a psychic crisis. the experience of the 1890's. The islands were secured in an attempt "to construct a system of coaling, cable, and A perceptive and useful bibliographic essay naval stations for an integrated trade route concludes this slim volume. The book is which could realize America's overriding am­ marred by one major editorial error on page bition in the Pacific—the penetration of the 125, which does not complete the text of the fabled China market." preceding page. Apparently a portion of the

341 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 text has been excluded or garbled, and while equivalent of the Dark Ages. The events be­ it does not destroy the unity of the chapter, tween 1958 and 1960 which climaxed in the it is an annoying fault since the reader is abortive summit conference are extremely well uncertain of the full extent of the omission. described. The book ends with the Cuban Mis­ The publisher was notified of this error, sile Crisis, a criticism of American policy in which presumably could be corrected with an Vietnam, and the comforting thought that nu­ errata insert, but no action or acknowledge­ clear weapons have had a "restraining in­ ment was forthcoming other than to send fluence" in international affairs. another copy that contained the same omis­ There is nothing in this volume on the sion. Perhaps the page proof error is more Guatemalan or Santo Domingo interventions serious than would first appear. In any case, of 1954 and 1965 respectively, and indeed it is the publisher's responsibility to the au­ little at all on Latin America with, of course, thor and the reader quickly to make the cor­ the usual exception of a section on Castro rection. and the Missile Crisis. There is even less on the internal dynamics of American foreign EDWARD P. CRAPOL policy. College of William and Mary As in some of his other works, Mr. Halle refers to Thucydides (who, like Mr. Halle, knew—or revealed—very little of the crucial domestic political and economic infighting which shapes foreign policy), and he again uses American policy in the 1890's as the be­ ginning of the United States' role as a great world power. He still uses sources and in­ terpretations of thirty years ago in explain­ The Cold War As History. By Louis J. HALLE. ing that departure, and at key points in the (Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, narrative this level is never transcended. To 1967. Pp. xiv, 434. Bibliography, index. argue, for example, that the United States $6.95.) stumbled in 1945-1946 because its leaders did not appreciate balance-of-power tactics over­ In this and other writings Louis Halle has looks the contradictory point that American argued that American diplomacy in the Cold policy-makers simply assumed—and rightly War suffered because Washington officials so—that their monopoly of the atomic bomb did not understand the rudiments of balance- and their tremendous economic power allowed of-power politics. At Yalta, "the dying Roose­ them a wide superiority in the balance-of- velt was hardly thinking at all," and Churchill power struggle. Perhaps because he is not was a "sleep-walker." The Soviet response, acquainted with recent monographs on the which Halle explains better than the American subject, Mr. Halle is grossly unfair to the policy, was conditioned by the requirements many American scientists in the 1945-1947 and opportunities which faced Stalin in 1945. era who lobbied incessently to keep control The Russian dictator feared revolutions not of atomic energy out of the hands of the mili­ under his complete control, and even Soviet tary. His discussion on the origins of Arti­ power and ideology limited Stalin's alterna­ cle 51 in the UN Charter is erroneous in argu­ tives in Eastern Europe. By 1947, however, ing that it came primarily from the Latin American policy had become realistic and American nations; it emanated from Senator successful. This policy was summarized in Vandenberg and Nelson Rockefeller who, in large part by Mr. "X", or George Kennan, this case, used a rather sophisticated "balance- who was a colleague of Mr. Halle's when both of-power" concept against Russia. were members of the State Department's Poli­ Such lapses in doing bread-and-butter his­ cy Planning Staff in the late 1940's. Unfor­ torical research lead to unfortunate results. tunately, within two years this realism had When Mr. Halle laments that Mr. "X" has been diluted by the Administration's deter­ been tragically misused by policy-makers since mination to form NATO—although Mr. Halle 1947, the failure is charged to style, rhetoric, is never clear on how much this NATO policy and a general failure to "communicate." Yet rested on reality and how much Truman and a short time later Mr. Halle admits that "In Acheson tragically intensified the Cold War politics, as in all human affairs, words are by mistakenly attempting to put the conflict deeds." He does not analyze enough the deeds on a military basis. The era of Dulles is the of 1946-1949 which those words of "X" rep-

342 BOOK REVIEWS resented and in many of which Mr. Halle par­ The editor's introduction should give some ticipated. The gap is then too often papered indication of how he viewed his function and over with foolish analogies, such as comparing how he carried out his responsibilities. For Stalin's waiting for Western European col­ example, are the papers published here sub­ lapse to "A flock of crows [which] will some­ stantially in the same form as they were pre­ times swarm in fury upon one of its members sented to the conference? Or, because of time who has been disabled"; or discussing Soviet limitations and other considerations, did the motivations in Eastern Europe in terms of speakers deliver abridged versions of what putting "food before a sufficiently hungry is now published? If the latter arrangement child," and then watching the child eat even was followed, did the speakers and commen­ though it has been warned that it will have tators have an opportunity to revise and edit indigestion if the food is eaten. their remarks before submitting a final ver­ On page 188 Mr. Halle observes: "The sec­ sion for publication? With one minor ex­ tor of public opinion generally most vulner­ ception—an indication that some corrections able to ideological propaganda is constituted were made in one of the tables—the editor by that peculiar class, concentrated in the great has provided no answers to these kinds of cities, called the intellectuals. Their principal questions. However, a close reading of the characteristic is a preoccupation with ideolog­ text and commentary indicates that some ical formulations, a preoccupation that tends speakers delivered abridged versions and that to blind them to what actually is, as opposed to some of the discussion from the floor has what is said. They live in the Socratic world been edited. These arrangements may not of ideas, a nominal world that is more real detract from the usefulness of the volume—• to them than the real world." Given the way they may even increase it—but they do re­ he has handled the history of the Cold War, sult in some seemingly curious questions from the author in that statement wrote his own re­ the floor and the reader is occasionally baffled view for this book. by the lack of discussion on some points until he realizes that the audience was responding to what it heard, not to what is now published. WALTER LAFEBER Cornell University In the long run, of course, usefulness will have to be judged by the substance of what is published here and not by the editorial considerations that went into producing the volume. The conference concentrated on the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Successive speakers and commen­ The Growth of the Seaport Cities, 1790-1825: tators sought to describe and, if possible, Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by explain and evaluate differences and simi­ the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, larities in their growth in the early years of March 17-19, 1966. Edited by DAVID T. GIL­ the republic. They look at these differences CHRIST. (Published for the Eleutherian Mills- from the perspectives of population, foreign Hagley Foundation by The University Press of trade, trade and manufactures, financial in­ Virginia, Charlottesville, 1967. Pp. xvi, 227. stitutions, and economic thought, and they Tables, charts, index. $5.00.) give us something that is both stimulating and useful. In short, the proceedings can This volume comprises a summary intro­ be read with a great deal of profit. duction by the editor, a public lecture on A good deal of frustration, I think, comes Urban Growth and Regional Development by with the profit. For example, Julius Rubin's Julius Rubin, five papers and one or more brilliant and provocative lecture somehow formal commentaries on each, a transcript of failed to provide a framework in which the the discussion which followed each paper, the four ports might be examined; at least two chairman's summary of the conference, and of the commentators provided separate papers general discussion. Appended are a note on of their own rather than critical analyses of the conference speakers and commentators the main papers; and the conference never and a list of those who attended the confer­ resolved the opening dispute—whether the ence. Clearly, the volume has a useful purpose, ports grew slowly or rapidly between 1790 but how useful depends on the usefulness of and 1830. To be sure, conferences are not the conference itself and on the authenticity supposed to settle anything, but this reader of the published proceedings. comes away from these proceedings with

343 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 mixed feelings: grateful for the new infor­ for, the often bland recitation of many text­ mation, perspectives, and insights, yet disap­ books. pointed (perhaps naively so) that a convinc­ But the book is more than a narrative; ing explanation for the relative performances it is also an essay which pleads, on the basis of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and of Trask's reading of the past, for a more Baltimore remains as elusive as ever. The con­ intelligent current foreign policy, and in this ference might have struck more fire had one posture, Trask seems to be on less secure set of speakers been asked to analyze and ground. Fortunately, these theoretical sections explain the performance of each port and had are separated from the narrative and gener­ another set of speakers sought to account ally do not impinge upon it. In a distinct for the differences. The focus would then chapter he introduces the "Twentieth Century have been on the ports rather than compara­ War," his term for the two world wars of tive finance, trade, manufacturing, and eco­ the twentieth century, the long armistice be­ nomic thought. tween them, and the current "troubled After­ math." Trask is concerned about the violence PETER J. COLEMAN so characteristic of the present century be­ University of Illinois at Chicago Circle cause he recognizes, quite correctly, that another world war might be the last. At the root of the violence, he believes, is the unwillingness of most people to realize that the "international status quo" may not be able to "accommodate change through ad­ justment." The major flaw in this analysis is that the "international status quo" is never Victory Without Peace: American Foreign adequately defined. At times, it seems as Relations in the Twentieth Century. By David though he is referring to the nation-state sys­ F. TRASK. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New tem, at others to Western hegemony over the York, 1968. Pp. xiv, 201. Bibliography, maps, index. $5.95.) world, at times to the current East-West strug­ gles, and also, finally, to the balance of power at any given time. David F. Trask's Victory Without Peace is actually two books. The first, accurately de­ He implies that the nation-state system is scribed by the subtitle, American Foreign "obsolete," but this is contradictory because Relations in the Twentieth Century, comprises he recognizes that the nation-state has refused most of the work, covering briefly, but to die. Moreover, it seems especially question­ perceptively, the major events suggested by able to suggest, as he does, that the nation- that subtitle. Trask begins with the last peace state was outmoded as early as World War I with victory, the settlements at Vienna in 1815, because agitation for nation-states was one summarizes the legacy of the nineteenth cen­ of the causes of World War I. Trask him­ tury, and then examines the role of the United self considers the rise of new nations as the States as a great power in the twentieth cen­ most pronounced feature of the post-World tury. As a history, the balance is excellent: War II world. He believes that the demand there is a section on American relations with of these nations for social satisfaction is po­ Africa, for example. The narrative is precise; tentially one of the most explosive and un­ for instance, the sections on the Anglo-Amer­ settling factors in international diplomacy, ican rapprochement and German-American especially if the United States refuses to ac­ tension at the turn of the century are models cept the social revolutions of these emerging of concise execution. The style is often en­ nations. He prescribes accommodation of gaging; for example, Trask speaks of Amer­ these new nations, to ease their adolescence. ica's "half-way covenant with the Allies" in Trask is really pleading for Americans to World War I. The judgments are temperate, recognize that the Cold War cannot be, must such as the following (p. 113) : "The decisions not be, continued in the third world. These of World War II stemmed more from neces­ nations have their own interests in remaining sity than individual exoticism or desire. Hu­ neutral. For example, Americans ought to man error there was, in great plenty as during remember that neutrality proved to be a ben­ all wars, but mistakes must be considered eficial shield for the growing United States. in the context of an unusually straitened Viewing "every international question as an diplomatic setting." These factors make the aspect of the Cold War" has been a "dan­ book an excellent supplement to, or substitute gerous delusion, constantly injurious to Amer-

344 BOOK REVIEWS ican foreign policy," Trask believes. It is the Good Neighbor policy, which he con­ dangerous because it leads to American ob­ tends is too beneficial to reactionary leader­ stinacy regarding social revolutions abroad, ship. Trask believes that American reluctance a course which might lead to more Viet Nams. to intervene has rendered the United States It is unnecessary, because Trask believes that unable to reach beyond corrupt governments the Cold War is now in its later stages. He to aid the "people" of the new nations. is ambiguously optimistic about American America can be subversive, the author seems ability to respond to the demands of the to suggest, so long as it subverts "unrespon­ new nations. Common sense and sympathy sive" governments. This proposition seems will offset American reluctance to support unrealistic. At what point should our inter­ changes in the "international status quo," he ference end; should we also teach them to predicts, and overcome American conserva­ elect good men? tism, which is induced by affluence. He argues for an active foreign policy, not one based on isolationism, or even noninter­ FREDERICK B. HOYT vention. This proposal leads him to denounce University of Wisconsin

BOOK REVIEWS:

Berwanger, The Frontier Against Slavery: Western Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, reviewed Anti-Negro Prefudice and the Slavery Extension by Donald C. Swain 336 Controversy, reviewed by Richard E. Beringer 333 Newby, Challenge to the Court: Social Scientists Dunn, William Penn: Politics and Conscience, re­ and the Defense of Segregation, reviewed by Gil­ viewed by Maxine F. Neustadt 340 bert Osofsky 338 Eisner, William Morris Leiserson: A Biography, reviewed by Theron F. Schlabach 334 O'Neill, Divorce in the Progressive Era, reviewed Gilchrist (ed.), The Growth of the Seaport Cities, by Allen F. Davis 337 1790-1825, reviewed by Peter J. Coleman 343 Penick, Progressive Politics and Conservation: The Halasz, The Rattling Chains: Slave Unrest and Re­ Ballinger-Pinchot Affair, reviewed by Roderick volt in the Antebellum South, reviewed by Leslie Nash 336 H. Fishel, Jr 329 Perrin, The Architecture of Wisconsin, reviewed by Halle, The Cold War As History, reviewed by Walter Robert C. Twombly 332 LaFeber 342 Kellogg, NAACP: A History of the National Associa­ Trask, Victory Without Peace: American Foreign tion for the Advancement of Colored People, re­ Relations in the Twentieth Century, reviewed by viewed by Leslie H. Fishel, Jr 329 Frederick B. Hoyt 344 McCormack, China Market: America's Quest for Wynes (ed.), Forgotten Voices: Dissenting Southern­ Informal Empire, 1893-1901, reviewed by Edward ers in an Age of Conformity, reviewed by Leslie P. Crapol 340 H. Fishel, Jr 329

345 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

Manitowoc, Clipper City Water Festival, Au­ Bibliographical Notes gust 19-20, 1967, Souvenir Booklet (48 p.) Histories of Manitowoc's Southside Unless otherwise noted, all publications listed District Schools, 1850-1910 (1966, 47 p. are available for use in the Society's Library. $1.00.) Interested persons may borrow these and other Menomonee Falls, Diamond Jubilee, 1892- publications by requesting their local libraries to obtain them on inter-library loan. Where no 1967 (48 p.) local library exists, they may write directly to Milwaukee, St. John's Evangelical Lutheran the Society. Church, School Dedication, June 5, 1966 (6 p.) The following commemorative publications Mondovi, Thompson Valley Lutheran Church, of Wisconsin communities, churches, and Centennial, 1866-1966 (26 p.) organizations have been received: Owen, Fifty Years at St. Katherine's Church [compiled by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth 0. Beaver Dam, 125th Anniversary, 1841-1966 Crosby and the Rev. Richard Hewetson] (67 p.) _ (10 p.) Caledonia, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Polar, 75th Anniversary, St. John's Lutheran School, Centennial, 1864-1964 (20 p.) Church, September 4, 1960 (8 p.) Delafield, United Presbyterian Church, Cen­ Poynette, First Presbyterian Church, Centen­ tennial, 1866-1966 (16 p.) nial, 1867-1967 (5 p.) Elkhart Lake, Centennial of St. Paul's United Rhinelander, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of Christ, 1865-1965 (24 p.) Church, 75th Anniversary, 1891-1966 Evansville. Centennial Historical Program, (30 p.) 1866-1966 (55 p.) Shullsburg, Our Lady of Hope, Centennial, Fond du Lac, More than Brick and Stone: 1867-1967 (56 p.) A History of St. Mary's Parish, 1966 Stanley, Our Saviour Lutheran Church: 80 [by John J. Schmitz] (67 p.) Years of God's Grace, 1885-1965 (30 p.) St. Agnes School of Nursing: Supple­ Vandyne, Centennial, 1866—1966: The History ment to the Golden Jubilee History, 1960- and Anecdotes of a Small Wisconsin Com­ 1966, together with an Alumnae Directory, munity (72 p.) 1966 (132 p.) Watertown, The First Congregational Church, Forest Junction, Zion Evangelical United United Church of Christ, 1845-1965 (16 p.) Brethren Church, Centennial, 1866-1966 Two useful religious publications added to (34 p.) the library are History of American Baptist Hartland. A History of the First Congrega­ Women of Wisconsin, 1877-1967 (38 p.) tional Church, 1842-1967 (28 p.) and Provincial Directory, Assumption B.V.M. Hillsboro, Memories of Hillsboro High School, Province, Order of Friars Minor (Pulaski, 1916-1917-1918 (22 p.) Wisconsin, 1966. 24 p.) Juda, Zion Evangelical United Brethren Church, Centennial, 1867—1967 (32 p.) A significant contribution to denomination­ Zion Evangelical Brethren Church, al history is Roy A. Suelflow's Walking With Centennial Day Program, Oct. 1, 1961 Wise Men: A History of the South Wiscon­ (6 p.) . . sin District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Published by the Church, 8100 West La Crosse, Official Program, Sixth Annual Capitol Drive, Milwaukee, 1967. 221 p.) This Oktober Fest, Oct. 5-9 [containing a his­ thoroughly scholarly and impressively doc­ tory of La Crosse by Mrs. Mary Hebberd] umented study was written by Dr. Suelflow (56 p.) of Concordia College, Milwaukee, to celebrate Madison, Bethel Lutheran Church Handbook the 1966 golden anniversary of the South (192 p.) Wisconsin District. First Church of the Nazarene, Report of the Pastor, 1966 (19 p.) Two articles of interest are Edward Taube, Grace Episcopal Church, Parish Di­ "The Name Wisconsin," in Names (April, rectory, 1968 (24 p. 1967) ; and "Father Rene Menard and the History of Memorial United Church First Church in the Northwest," by Monsignor of Christ, 1967 (16 p. Peter Leo Johnson in the April, 1968, issue History of St. Patrick's Church, of The Salesianum. A feature of the issue 1888-1958 [by Rev. Leo L. Rummel] is a tribute to Monsignor Johnson on the (119 p.) eve of his eightieth birthday.

346 History in Paperbacks

Below are listed a number of paperback William B. Hesseltine, Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruc­ books in American history and letters recent­ tion. Introduction by Richard N. Current. (Quad­ rangle Books, Chicago, 1967. Pp. 154. $1.95.) ly received by the Magazine. Some are orig­ inal publications; others are reprints. They J. Rogers HoUingsworth (ed.), American Expansion are listed alphabetically by author. in the Late Nineteenth Century: Colonialist or Anti- colonialist? (American Problem Studies, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1968. Pp. 121. $2.25.)

Jack Bell, The Presidency, Office of Power (AUyn William Loren Katz, Teachers' Guide to American and Bacon, Boston, 1967. Pp. v, 182. $3.95.) Negro History (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1968. Pp. 192. $2.25.) Ray Allen Billington (ed.). The Frontier Thesis: Valid Interpretation of American History? (Amer­ Edward Chase Kirkland, Industry Comes of Age: ican Problem Studies, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Business, Labor, and Public Policy, 1860-1897 1966. Pp. 122. fl.95.) (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1967. Pp. x, 445. $2.95.) Kenneth E. Boulding, The Organizational Revolution (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1968. Pp. xxxvi, 235. Gabriel Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism: A $2.45.) Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916 (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1967. Pp. 344. $2.65.) Wesley Frank Craven, The Colonies in Transition, 1660-1713 (Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Stanley I. Kutler (ed.). The Dred Scott Decision: New York, 1968. Pp. xii, 363. Illus. $2.25.) Law or Politics? (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1967. Pp. XX, 188. $2.25.)

Robert D. Cross, The Emergence of Liberal Cathol­ Arnaldo D. Momigliano, Studies in Historiography icism in America (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, (Harper Torchbooks, Harper and Row, New York, 1968. Pp. viii, 326. $2.65.) 1966. Pp. viii, 264. $1.95.)

Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., The Jeffersonian Repub­ Norman Pollock (ed.), The Populist Mind (Ameri­ licans in Power: Party Operations, 1801-1809 can Heritage Series, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, (Published for the Institute of Early American 1967. Pp. Ixiii, 539. $3.75.) History and Culture at Williamsburg by the Uni­ versity of North Carolina Press, 1967. Pp. ix, John P. Roche, The Quest for the Dream: The 318. Illus. $2.95.) Development of Civil Rights and Human Relations in Modern America (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1968. Pp. X, 308. $2.65.) Philip Davidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763-1783 (University of North Car­ olina Press, Chapel Hill, 1967. Pp. xvi, 460. $2.95.) Ralph A. Stone (ed.), Wilson and the League of Nations: Why America's Refection? (American Problem Studies, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Robert A. Divine, The Illusion of Neutrality: Frank­ 1967. Pp. 122. $1.95.) lin D. Roosevelt and the Struggle Over the Arms Embargo (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1968. Pp. Wilcomb E. Washburn, The Governor and the Rebel: xi, 370. $2.65.) A History of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia (Pub­ lished for the Institute of Early American His­ tory and Culture by the University of North Lloyd C. Gardner (ed.), A Different Frontier: Se­ Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1967. Pp. xv, 248. lected Readings in the Foundations of American Illus. $2.45.) Economic Expansion (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1966. Pp. 190. $1.85.) William Appleman Williams, The Great Evasion: An Essay on the Contemporary Relevance of Karl Edwin Scott Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New Marx and on the Wisdom of Admitting the Heretic England (Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1968. Pp. into the Dialogue About America's Future (Quad­ 173. $2.25.) rangle Books, Chicago, 1964. Pp. 189. $2.25.)

347 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

three separate series of biographical sketches of Wisconsin artists, and materials concern­ ing the Index of American Design, transferred from the Museum; papers, 1960-1967, of Arthur I. Waskow, writer and researcher, con­ T^CCESSIONS sisting of his files relating to civil defense, military strategy, violence and political con­ flict, and the issues of peace, economic jus­ Services for microfilming, photostating, and tice, racial equality, and technology, presented xeroxing all but certain restricted items in its by Mr. Waskow, Washington, D. C; and ad­ manuscripts collections are provided by the ditions to the papers of Adolph Germer, labor Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. organizer. Harper, Manuscripts Curator.

Theater Collections. Fifty-three holograph Manuscripts orchestrations by Nelson Riddle of songs by Ira Gershwin, each score signed by Ella Fitz­ gerald, Ira Gershwin, and Nelson Riddle, pre­ General Collections. Papers, 1880-1886, of sented by Miss Fitzgerald, Beverly Hills, William E. Aitchison, University of Wiscon­ Calif.; papers, 1957—1964, of George Seaton, sin student, including typewritten copies of producer and screen writer, including cor­ his letters to his parents concerning the Uni­ respondence, notes, excerpts, and related ma­ versity, 1880-1884, and his subsequent work terial concerning The Counterfeit Traitor in Iowa, 1884-1886, presented by Clyde (1962), and correspondence, research, scripts, Aitchison, Washington, D. C; papers, 1938- publicity, and related material for 36 Hours 1953, of the American Council for Judaism, (1964), presented by Mr. Seaton, Beverly an anti-Zionist organization, including main­ Hills, Calif.; papers, 1963-1966, of Sidney ly correspondence but also other papers, all Sheldon, screen and television writer and di­ relating to the work of the organization, pre­ rector, consisting chiefly of drafts, revisions, sented by the Council, New York, N. Y.; pa­ production reports, contracts, and notes for pers, 1920-1966, of the Foreign Policy Asso­ the series, / Dream of Jeannie, and final ciation, including community files, 1938- drafts for the Patty Duke Show, presented by 1962, national files, 1920-1960, materials Mr. Sheldon, New York, N. Y.; papers, 1920- showing internal organization and national 1966, of Philip Stevenson, novelist and play­ programs, official minutes and records on wright, including correspondence, articles, microfilm, and departmental reports and pub­ speeches, essays, manuscripts of novels, scripts lications, presented by the Association, New for plays, diaries, and materials relating to York, N. Y.; papers, ca. 1899-1955, of Dr. the House Committee on Un-American Activi­ Noel A. Gillespie, British anesthetist who be­ ties and the "Hollywood Ten", presented by came a member of the Wisconsin State Hos­ the estate of Philip Stevenson, Venice. Calif, pital staff at Madison, including correspond­ and by Albert Maltz, Mill Valley, Calif.; pa­ ence by and relating to Dr. Albert Schweitzer, pers, 1946—1965, of Stephen Sondheim, writer 1922-195[2?]; letters from T. E. Lawrence, and composer of plays and musicals, includ­ 1913—1921; and letters and diaries of Gil­ ing correspondence, scripts for dramatic, mus­ lespie's mother, Emily Reider, lecturer on ical, radio, and television plays, and music women's and humanitarian movements, pre­ and lyrics for songs, presented by Mr. Sond­ sented by the Gillespie estate, Madison; pa­ heim, New York, N. Y.; papers, 1947-1964, pers, 1904—1966, of C. L. Harrington, super­ of David Susskind, play and television pro­ intendent of state forests and parks in Wis­ ducer, including his personal correspondence, consin, 1923-1958, including correspondence, 1955-1963, and several hundred separate sub­ memoranda, subject files, and resource ma­ ject files, each arranged as to correspondence, terials, and including the correspondence of production material, scripts, and clippings, E. M. Griffith, state forester, 1904^1916, pre­ presented by Mr. Susskind, New York, N. Y.; sented by John T. and Richard N. Harrington, papers, 1939-1963, of Howard Teichmann, Milwaukee (Restricted) ; papers, 1935-1945, play producer, writer, and professor of Eng­ of the Wisconsin Federal Art Project under lish at Barnard College, including some cor­ WPA, including correspondence, 1935-1945, respondence but chiefly scripts for radio, tele-

348 ACCESSIONS vision, and the theater, presented by Mr. Aug. 23, 1966, and a written response to Ryan Teichmann, New York, N. Y.; and additions from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, to the papers of Jean Rosenthal, stage lighting transferred from the Editorial Division; designer. reminiscences of Harry L. Baumgarten, who served as a private in Signal Corps Co. E., Genealogy. A genealogy of the Abbott, Adams, 402nd Telegraph Battalion, U.S. Army, and Dunbar ancestry as complied by George 1918-1919, presented by Arthur O. Hove, B. Belting, presented by Mr. Belting, Beloit; Madison; "Bolahun Episodes", by Marion G. a biography of William Carbys, German emi­ Beasley, the experiences of the wife of a med­ grant who settled in Thiensville, Wis., and ical missionary in the hinterland of Liberia, letters and notes concerning the Carbys family West Africa, 1951-1953, presented by Arthur and the related family of Zimmerman, pre­ 0. Hove, Madison; letters, 1863-1864, from sented by Lillian Carbys Larsen, Los Angeles, Dr. DeWitt C. Beebe while he served as sur­ Calif.; "Footprints of Pioneers", a collection geon with the 4th New York Cavalry in Mary­ of notes taken by Fremont and Minnie L. land and Virginia, and an account of his Jaynes, 1902, concerning the settlement of wife's early life written by her in 1931 in Berlin, Ceresco, Neenah, Oshkosh, Racine, Sparta, Wis., where they settled in 1865, pre­ and Waukau, with early photographs as illus­ sented by George Gilkey, La Crosse, Wis.; trations, extracts from Jaynes family records, notes concerning John R. Commons, econ­ and record of descendants of Henry Clinton omist, written in March, 1967, by Hazel F. Jaynes, presented by Max B. Adams, Okla­ Briggs (Mrs. Alfred W.) who was Dr. Com­ homa City, Okla.; "History of the Kiser Fam­ mons' secretary at the University of Wiscon­ ily, with supporting notes, letters, clippings, sin between 1922 and 1928, presented by Mrs. photographs, charts, etc.", 1896-1938, by Briggs, Madison; correspondence, 1864-1865, Daniel E. Kiser, Eau Claire, source unknown; between Private George W. Buffum, Wausau, manuscript notes on the descendants of John Co. D, 5th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, Hall Thorp and the genealogy of the Cotterell and his family, concerning army life in the family in America, presented by Roy Wyman, Virginia area and the difficulties of family Elderon, Wis.; a booklet by Lor and Ed [ward] life in Wisconsin, lent for copying by Mrs. Hein on the history of the Hein family in Warren C. Williams, Merrill; an article by America, called "The Heins come to America, Ray Bundick, "The Disappearance of Father the story of an ancestry", presented by Ed­ Menard", presented by Mr. Bundick, West- ward N. Hein, Madison; genealogical charts boro; papers, 1862-1896, relating to Lt and notes concerning the ancestry and de­ Richard Caddell, Co. D, 11th Regiment Wis scendants of John Russell Wheeler of Colum­ cousin Volunteers, including correspondence- bus, Wis., and the related families of Rock­ parts of his diary, 1864-1865, and his photo well, Edwards, Starr, Rusk, and Shaw, pre­ graph, presented by Mrs. Harley Fogo, Rich sented by Mrs. Helen Wheeler Fuller, Milwau­ land Center; diary, 1863-1864, of private kee; "Family history of Christian Huepen- Fayette Cannon, Co. E, 2nd Regiment Wis­ becker and Friedericka Mason Huepenbecker, consin Volunteers, relating to an ordinary 1830-1959; compiled and written by Martha soldier's life in the Missouri-Arkansas area H. Jewell, 1959, presented by Mrs. Jewell, of conflict during the Civil War, lent for copy­ Lancaster; a list of birth dates of descendants ing by George Gilday, Madison; letters, 1862- of Benjamin and Martha Knouse (1816-1888) 1863, from Lewis F. Cleveland, Co. A, 32nd of Lafayette County, Wis., received with the Regiment New York Volunteers and brother papers of the Lafayette County Historical So­ of Grover Cleveland, describing army life and ciety; and family record of Harry Adams maneuvers in Virginia and Maryland, pre­ and his wife, Julia Ann (Newell) Adams, of sented by Mabel De Witt, Sayner; letters, Vergennes, Vt., and Madison, Wis., including 1863, from Marvin Creager, Co. F, 2nd Regi­ dates of births, marriages, and deaths of their ment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, concern­ children, transferred from the Darwin Clark ing life in the army, troop movements in Ten­ family pictorial record in the Museum. nessee and Missouri, and an essay on General William T. Sherman, lent for copying by Mrs. J. I. Poole, Milwaukee; papers, 1884-1923, Miscellaneous Small Collections. A review by of General William G. Haan, including a Stephen Ambrose of The Last Battle, by Cor­ Panama diary, 1903-1904, a memorandum nelius Ryan, with correspondence concerning book, 1911 and 1915, a World War I diary, annotations by General Dwight D. Eisen­ 1917, and various diplomas, appointments, hower, including a letter from Eisenhower,

349 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 and citations, presented by Mrs. W. G. Haan, an unpublished manuscript by /. L. Penick, n.p.; two letters, 1920 and 1922, from Robert Jr. transferred from the Editorial Division M. La Follette, Sr., relating to political cam­ (Literary rights restricted) ; copy of the paigns in Wisconsin, and copy of a letter, Nov. party platform written in [1914?] by the 17, 1863, allegedly written in blood at Libby Republican party of Wisconsin, presented by Prison and smuggled out in a coat button by Thomas E. Fairchild, Madison; papers, 1899- Lt. Henry Clay Taylor, Co. A., 21st Regiment 1910, of Mrs. Helen Bruneau Van Vechten, Wisconsin Volunteers, presented by Taylor Wausau, who helped operate the Philosopher Hall, De Pere; "Rules and Regulations of Press in Wisconsin from 1896 to 1904, print­ the Wisconsin Pioneer Company", organized ing fine and rare books, including a few let­ June 21, 1856, as one of the three branches of ters, clippings, photographs, and subscriptions the Kansas Settlers Association, including a for aid in building the Log Cabin Shop, pre­ journal by Emory M. Hamilton of Milton, sented by Mrs. A. M. Evans, Wausau; a his­ presented by Byron K. Wells, Eureka Springs, tory of the Stoughton Wagon Company owned Ark.; four letters, 1848-1850, from and to by the Vea family, written by F. J. Vea when Charlotte Haven, and journal, 1848, of her he was eighty-seven years of age, presented sister, Harriot, describing especially the social by Georgiana Vea Horton, Chagrin Falls, life of "associationists" at the community of Ohio; and a collection of short letters written Ceresco, Fond du Lac County, presented by to Horatio Woodman, Exeter, New Hamp­ Ruth Mason Calderwood, Palo Alto, Calif.; shire, 1836-1840, for his autograph collection, papers, 1835-1864, of Peter Hotaling, oper­ including signatures of many persons impor­ ator of steamboats in New York state and tant in public life at that time, such as, James later in Wisconsin, including six letters to his K. Polk, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, wife, 1835-1843, a few business papers in­ Millard Fillmore, Clement C. Clay, and W. B. cluding Charles Hotaling's license to pilot Calhoun, presented by Wisconsin State Uni­ boats on the Fox, Wolf, and Lake Winnebago versity at La Crosse. waters, and daybook of the Union Line, P. Hotaling & Co., 1836, presented by Mrs. Sim Schaefer, Fond du Lac; correspondence, 1862- Disc Recordings. The Story of Greenwood, a 1863, of private Alonzo G. Jack, Madison, Co. documentary produced and recorded by Guy A, 23rd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, de­ Carawan for the Student Nonviolent Co-ordin­ scribing in some detail army life and man­ ating Committee, purchased from Discount euvers in the lower Mississippi area, donor un­ Records, Inc., Madison; Viva La Causa, songs known; scrapbook, 1895-1953, concerning and sounds from the Delano, Calif., farm Thomas I. Kidd, Chicago, secretary of the In­ workers' strike, recorded during the 300-mile ternational Union of Woodworkers, defended march [1966], with additions being made in by Clarence Darrow in the conspiracy trial the studio at Delano, purchased from Thunder- resulting from the Oshkosh woodworkers' bird Records, Delano; and recordings made strike of 1898, presented by Arthur R. Kidd, at Radio Station WTMJ, Milwaukee, of the Delray Beach, Fla.; letter, Dec. 20, 1863, from radio program celebrating the ninetieth an­ Private Edward D. Levings, Co. A, 12th Regi­ niversary of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul ment Wisconsin Volunteers, describing the & Pacific Railroad, 1940, presented by the rigors of camp life while in winter quarters Company, Chicago, 111. near Natchez, Miss., source unknown; papers, 1861-1863, of Dr. Emmanuel Monk, German Microfilms. Manuscript copy of a diary, 1864- physician who emigrated to Wisconsin in 1865, of Alfred D. Burdick, Co. C, 27th Massa­ 1847, including letters, 1862-1863, written chusetts Infantry, describing his capture by while he served as a surgeon with the Confederate troops and his imprisonment at 20th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, and Libby, Andersonville, and Florence, lent for letters, 1866-1873, describing his life in Fond filming by Byron K. Wells, Eureka Springs, du Lac and Milwaukee (partly in German), Ark.; miscellaneous papers, 1956-1966, of the lent for microfilming by Hernak Kothe, In­ International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite dianapolis, Ind.; "An Historical Review of and Paper Mill Workers, mainly relating to Provident Hospital", by Theresita E. Norris, the uniform labor agreement between the ma­ giving the history of Chicago's first Negro jor unions and manufacturers of the Pacific hospital, 1891-ca.l946, presented by Leslie Coast pulp and paper industry, and to litiga­ H. Fishel, Madison; "A Matter of Policy, tion between rival unions, lent for filming by the Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy of 1910", Harry Graham, Iowa City, Iowa, and by the IBPS&PMW and the Association of Western

350 ACCESSIONS

Pulp Workers; diary, 1869-1870, of Andrew history of the Women's Living Co-op in Madi­ Mayers, Madison druggist and merchant, de­ son, from the time of its formation, 1943, to scribing his journey by train to California, 1966, presented by the interviewer, Margaret and thence by ship around the "horn" to Eng­ Earner, Madison; recordings, 1951-1965, col­ land and back to the United States, lent for lected by Ray Henle, newscaster, including filming by Andrew T. Leith, Philadelphia, presidential news conferences and addresses, Penn.; notebook, 1872-1907, of Rev. William addresses by prominent Americans and for­ H. Messerschmidt, Madison, including a his­ eign figures, interviews, congressional hear­ tory of Joint District No. 5 (Burke and West- ings, and Three-Star Extra news programs by port townships), reminiscences of teaching in Henle, presented by Mr. Henle, Washington, Dane County, notes on a teacher's institute D. C; interview, Oct. 5, 1966, with Warren at Stoughton in 1876, and extracts from ser­ E. Hicks, Milwaukee, concerning Mr. Hicks' mons and poetry, source unknown; papers, career as the first assistant for industrial edu­ 1963-1966, of Lucille (Lucy) Montgomery, cation in Wisconsin, starting in 1912, pre­ patron of the Civil Rights movement, includ­ sented by the interviewer, Robert J. Spinti, ing correspondence, notes, project plans, re­ Menomonie; reminiscences, 1967, of Major ports, circulars, news releases and recordings, Hubert C. Knilans, Delavan, who joined the especially relating to the Highlander Educa­ Canadian Air Force in 1941 and served with tion and Research Center, the Student Non­ Canada in the British Isles and later with the violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC), United States Air Force, presented by Major and Mississippi, lent for filming by Mrs. Mont­ Knilans, Corona, Calif.; reminiscences, Sept. gomery, Northbrook, 111. (Restricted) ; and 8, 1966, of William Korpela, a Finnish immi­ scrapbook, ca. 1962-1967, of newspaper clip­ grant who arrived at the Redgranite quarries pings, fliers, correspondence, and miscellane­ during the strike of 1913, worked as a driller, ous items relating to the Civil Rights move­ and settled in Waushara County, interviewed ment in southwest Georgia and in Alabama, by Robert W. Sherman of the Society staff; lent for filming by the compiler, 5. B. Wells, interview, 1966, by Prof. Harold E. Kubly Albany, Ga. (Restricted). with Carl Bernard, San Bernardino, Calif., re­ lating to activities in the 600 block on East Gorham St. in Madison, where they both grew Tape Recordings. Interviews, Sept. 1, 1965, up, with particular discussion of the Bernard conducted by James Ayers in which Martin family's boat building and livery service on McGlinn, Crandon, sings "Jam on Gerry's Lake Mendota from about 1900 to 1930, pre­ Rocks", and August Buettner, Appleton, sings sented by Mr. Kubly, Madison; "A visit to several logging songs, recorded by Mr. Ayers, Sunflower County, Mississippi", home of Sen. Appleton; reminiscences of older residents of James 0. Eastland, a recording made by Baraboo, Wis. concerning the city's history, P[hilip] Lapsansky for the Freedom Informa­ especially its development as related to the tion Service, Edwards, Miss., August, 1966, railroads and circuses, produced by the Uni­ presented by Mr. Lapsansky, Edwards, Miss.; versity of Michigan Broadcasting service for recording of the memorial service on May 1, National Educational Radio; reminiscences, 1966, at Appleton on the occasion of the ninth April 24, 1966, of Bert Broude, Russian emi­ anniversary of the death of Sen. Joseph R. grant, who moved to Milwaukee in 1913 and McCarthy, with the address being given by in 1927 established a real estate and insur­ Peter Wheeler Reiss, Sheboygan, lent for copy­ ance business in that city, including the ing by Frederich Mellberg, Menasha; radio Broudes' experiences with Jewish organiza­ coverage of President John F. Kennedy's as­ tions in Milwaukee, interviewed by Robert W. sassination, November, 1963, as broadcast Sherman of the Society staff; speech. May over Radio Station WHA, Madison, transcrib­ 16, 1965, by Marquis Childs, "The Press and ed from recordings at the WHA studios; the Presidency", and a discussion, "America— reminiscences, Sept. 12, 1966, of Mrs. Mary 1975", in wbich he was a member of the Swenson North concerning her father, Magnus panel, presented by Mr. Childs, Washington, Swenson (1854—1936), Madison engineer, D. C; meetings and discussion periods at the businessman, and philanthropist, interviewed conference of the Citizens Natural Resources by Prof. Olaf A. Hougen, Swenson's biograph­ Association of Wisconsin, Inc., held in Madi­ er, and Robert W. Sherman of the Society son, April 16, 1966, recorded by Robert W. staff; interview, Nov. 22, 1966, with B. F. Sherman of the Society staff; interview, July Saltzstein, Milwaukee attorney, in which he 26, 1966, with Prof. Harold Groves, Univer­ describes the Milwaukee Jewish community sity of Wisconsin economist, concerning the

351 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968 he knew from 1906 to 1966, interviewed by Evangelical Lutheran Church (North Side Mrs. Charles T. Cohen and by Robert W. Church) as taken from the records of the Sherman of the Society staff; Howard K. congregational and annual meetings, 1892- Smith's "News and Comment" programs pre­ 1965, presented by Walter K. Miles, Spokane, sented by the American Broadcasting Com­ Wash.; biography of Wisconsin state senator, pany, dating from Feb. 21, 1962 through June James Huff Stout, of Knapp, Stout & 16, 1963, presented by Mr. Smith, Washing­ Company, and founder of Stout Institute at ton, D. C; interview, Qct. 6, 1966, with Jennie Menomonie, and the genealogy of his wife, M. Turner, Madison, concerning her work Angeline Wilson Stout, descendant of Capt. with the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Li­ William Wilson, who was one of the first brary and with the State Board of Vocational settlers of Menomonie and member of the Education, from which she retired in 1948, lumber company, presented by Mrs. George presented by the interviewer, Robert J. Spinti, W. La Pointe, Jr., Menomonie; and papers, Menomonie; reminiscences, Aug. 13, 1966, by 1902-1958, of the Rev. Benjamin F. Stucki, Howard Tyrer, Mineral Point, concerning former director of the Winnebago Indian mining activities near Mineral Point and Lin­ School at Neillsville, including correspondence, den, copy of interview made by Mrs. Mabel articles and sermons, and correspondence Nebel, Chicago, 111.; and interview, Sept. 15, and reports of the National Fellowship of In­ 1966, with Mrs. Mildred W. Wengel, widow of dian Workers, 1935-1958, presented by Mrs. Arthur M. Wengel, Madison expert on radio Stucki, Neillsville. electronics and said to be the developer of the first electronic hearing device, interviewed by Robert W. Sherman of the Society staff, aided by Mrs. Edward Hartford.

At Stevens Point. Papers, 1913-1923, 1955, relating to Neal Brown, an organizer of the Manuscripts Accessioned for the Marathon Paper Mills Co., containing his views on Democratic politics and including a Area Research Centers few letters, 1920-1923, from C. S. Gilbert, At Eau Claire. Papers, 1832-1929, of Wil­ also an organizer of the company, relating liam King Coffin, Eau Claire banker and busi­ to timber land in northern Wisconsin, pre­ nessman, including business and personal cor­ sented by Mrs. A. M. Evans, Wausau; papers, respondence, and his diary for 1869, pre­ 1911-1964, of Joseph Mercedes, vaudeville sented by John Proctor, Eau Claire; micro­ entertainer and Wisconsin tourist promoter, film of annual reports of activities and pro­ including correspondence, business papers, gress of the Eau Claire Electric Cooperative clippings, and ephemera, presented by Mr. Association for the period from 1941 to 1947, Mercedes, Rhinelander (19(34) ; papers, 1936- source unknown; papers, 1908-1942, of the 1942, of the Labor Day Parade Committee of Farmers & Merchants Bank, Cochrane, includ­ Redgranite, including plans of the committee ing minutes of the board of directors and on arrangements, lent for copying by Steven stockholders, 1927-1942, and capital stock Angelo, Redgranite; "The Story of the Doc­ issued and transferred, 1908-1940, presented tors and Dentists of Wild Rose" and "A Day by Delbert C. Helmueller, Ellsworth; papers, in My Childhood—the Threshing Operation 1830—1936, of Nathaniel C. Foster, Wisconsin by Horses", both by Dr. A. J. Stevens, who lumberman, railroad builder, and business­ practiced dentistry in Wild Rose from 1905 man, including political correspondence, to 1945, presented by A. J. Stevens, Beaver 1921-1922, miscellaneous business papers, Falls, N.Y.; papers, 1900-1955, of the Wis­ 1830-1920, concerning land interests, and a consin Cranberry Sales Company, including journal, 1908-1936, of the N. C. Foster Lum­ correspondence, minutes, journals of growers ber Company, Fairchild, presented by Mrs. accounts, general journals, and records re­ H. H. Thomas, Minneapolis, Minn.; papers, lating to growing and marketing cranberries 1905-1957, of the John H. Kaiser Lumber in Wisconsin, presented by the Company Company of Eau Claire, including corre­ through the courtesy of Miss Jean Nash, Wis­ spondence, board of directors minutes, and consin Rapids; and an autobiographical let­ miscellaneous legal and business records, pre­ ter, 1964, written by George A. Zimmer to sented by Mrs. William Kaiser, Eau Claire; his children, presented by Mr. Zimmer, Marsh- history of the Stanley, Wis., Skandinavian field.

352 Recent Museum Accessions

The handsome, sparkling flip glass shown at right was made in the Pittsburgh area early in the nine­ teenth century. It was made with a high lead con­ tent and when tapped rings like a resonant gong. The method of manufacture is an old one, known to the early Romans. A bubble of hot glass was blown down into a patterned mold by a blower using a long hollow rod. The helper then brought up a solid, or puntil, rod with a small gather of hot glass at the end and attached it to the bottom of the molded piece. With a wooden scissors the glass was then sheared off at the rim and held by the puntil iron for finishing. This accounts for the sharp, irregular "puntil mark" on hand-fashioned glass since there was no perfectly smooth way to remove the iron from the hardened base and it had to be cracked off with cold water. Such glasses were used for serving flip, a beverage made of beer or ale sweetened and spiced, sometimes containing beaten egg. The name derives from the custom of flipping the liquid hack and forth between two flip glasses to produce a froth. In France flip is made with cider, brandy, and spices, and in England with beer and spirits sweetened with sugar and heated with a special iron called a flip-dog.

Photographs by Paul Vanderbilt

Twentieth-century art pottery is being increasingly collected by the Museum. The stein pictured at the right in the lower photograph was made by the Welter Pottery Company of Zanesville, Ohio. It is marked "LOUWELSA/562/WELLER" and has a subdued strawberry pattern in glowing red under the brown glaze. It was purchased, together with the low- handled vase of Roseville Pottery shown in the center, as an example of late Victorian taste as it blends into the current modern trend. The slender dark vase at the left was made in the Rockwood Pottery, Cin­ cinnati, in 1922. This piece shows "modern" shaping and decoration and illustrates one of the dull matte glazes developed by this factory. Rockwood pioneered in the art pottery field under the guidance of Mrs. Maria Longworth Nichols ivho operated a school and factory in her family home, beginning about 1880. The factory still produces a limited amount of pot­ tery. It was never a cheap ware and is becoming highly collectable. This example is the gift of Mr. 'nc. and Mrs. Charles P. Farnsley of Louisville, Kentucky.

353 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1968

search fellow, and a teacher in the summer schools of the University of Kentucky and the University of Manitoba. He has taught at Northern Illinois University and Fresno State Contributors College and at present is on the history faculty of the University of Connecticut at Storrs. His specialties in United States history are ex­ pansionism and historical demography. He has published an article in Demography on ROGER E. WYMAN is a native nineteenth-century frontier populations, and of Great River, Long Island, this autumn the University of Pittsburgh Press New York. He received his will publish his book. The First and Second bachelor degree from Rutgers United States Empires: Governors and Terri­ University in 1962 and his torial Government, 1784-1912, from which master's degree from the Uni­ his essay in this issue is derived. He will spend versity of Wisconsin in 1964 the coming year at the University of Liberia and since then has continued his studies in in Monrovia on a Fulbright grant doing re­ American history under the direction of Pro­ search on the influence of the U.S. on the de­ fessor E. David Cronon. velopment of West Africa prior to World War His major areas of interest are the Progres­ I. Mr Eblen is married and has a daughter. sive era and the history of American politics and political behavior. Currently Mr. Wyman is an instructor in history at the Racine and Kenosha Centers of the University of Wiscon­ sin while completing his work toward the doctorate. His dissertation, from which his article in this issue is taken, is a study of JOSEPH R. CONLIN is twenty- ethnic, religious, and economic factors in vot­ JppBk eight, a native of Philadelphia. ing in Wisconsin between 1890 and 1914. ^tt*? He received his A.B. from His publications include a book review and an ^E^ Villanova University in Penn- article in Minnesota History which won the ^|fl§LJb^ sylvania and his graduate de- Solon Buck Award for the best contribution jBHH^H grees from the University of published in that journal in 1967. Wisconsin where he studied under Professor Richard N. Current. He has taught in colleges in the Midwest and in the East and currently is assistant professor of history at Chico State College, Chico, Califor­ JACK E. EBLEN was born in nia. In addition to numerous book reviews, Cincinnati and attended pub­ Mr. Conlin is also the author of several arti­ lic schools in Neenah, Wis­ cles on American labor and radicalism which consin, and Denver, Colora- have appeared in the Pacific Northwest Quar­ ^tf» ^^H *^°' •'^Iter service with the terly, Science and Society, and Studies on the ^B[i^^E army he entered the Univer­ Left. Two books by him were published this sity of Wisconsin where he year—Big BUI Haywood and the Radical received his B.S. degree in 1959, his M.A. Union Movement and American Anti-War in 1961, and his Ph.D. in history in 1966. Movements. At present he is preparing an in­ A student of Vernon Carstensen and the terpretive volume on the subject of the I.W.W. late William B. Hesseltine, he was also while which will include his essay in this issue of the in graduate school a teaching assistant, a re­ Magazine.

354 The vibrant, optimistic Progressive Movement of turn-of- the century America had its headwaters in the politics of various states. The major single tributary was Wisconsin, where Robert M. La Follette provided inspiration and organiza­ tion over a span of thirty years. Even in Wisconsin, however, the movement eventually declined. This book tells how — and why. The Decline of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin is based upon extensive research in a wide variety of sources, and represents both a synthesis and a new departure in the history of Wisconsin progressivism. Pp. x -+- 310. List price $5.95. Ten per cent discount to members of the Society. To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall be and of the Middle W'est.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Madison, Wisconsin, and at Return Requested additional mailing offices.